MMUVMPffl 


ALFRED    LORD    TENNYSON 


TENNYSON'S 

GARETH   AND    LYNETTE 

LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE 

AND   THE   PASSING 

OF   ARTHUR 


EDITED 
WITH  INTRODUCTION  AND  NOTES 

BY 
WILLIS   BOUGHTON,  PH.D. 

TEACHER  OF  ENGLISH  IN  ERASMUS  HALL  HIGH  SCHOOL 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


GINN   &   COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  .   CHICAGO  .  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 
BY  WILLIS   BOUGHTON 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 
27.3 


Cftt   atbtnacum   3&rtet 
GINN  \-  COMPANY  •  PKO- 

i-ilETORS  •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  three  idylls  included  in  this  volume  are  those 
selected  as  a  substitute  for  The  Princess  for  the  College 
Entrance  Examinations  of  1906  and  thereafter. 

The  aim  of  the  editor  has  been  threefold :  to  edit  fully 
without  the  appearance  of  pedantry;  to  give  the  pupils  such 
an  introduction  to  the  Arthurian  romances  as  seems  neces- 
sary for  a  complete  understanding  of  these  special  idylls ; 
to  make  the  learner  a  sympathetic  reader  of  Tennyson. 
The  text  of  the  Globe  edition  of  the  poet's  works  has  been 
followed  in  all  respects  excepting  in  the  spelling  of  such 
words  as  color,  honor,  etc.  In  annotating  the  Century  Dic- 
tionary has  been  used  for  definitions.  The  editor  has  made 
frequent  use  of  Malory's  Morte  Darthur  whenever  a  quota- 
tion would  make  a  passage  clearer.  He  is  also  indebted  to 
Dr.  J.  Scott  Clark's  A  Study  of  English  and  American  Poets 
for  some  short  quotations  used  in  the  Introduction. 

In  the  matter  of  interpretation  a  paper  in  the  Contem- 
porary Review  for  January,  1870,  and  one  in  the  same 
review  for  May,  1873,  were  found  helpful ;  but  the  editor  is 
most  largely  indebted  to  the  present  Lord  Tennyson,  whose 
Memoir  of  his  father  is  an  invaluable  aid  in  a  study  of  the 
Idylls.  This  Memoir  was  prepared  largely  under  the  eye  of 
the  poet.  It  contains  a  history  of  almost  every  poem  and 
interpretations  of  many.  The  explanation  of  the  allegory  of 
the  Idylls,  as  given  in  the  Introduction  to  this  volume,  is 
quoted  by  Lord  Tennyson  as  that  of  his  father. 


2054658 


vi  PREFACE 

In  order  to  interpret  the  music  and  the  spirit  of  a  poet  it 
is  necessary  to  understand  his  art  form.  Tennyson  was  a 
master  of  blank  verse.  The  editor  has  therefore  given 
several  pages  to  a  discussion  of  the  mechanism  of  Tenny- 
son's blank  verse.  In  his  definitions  of  the  kinds  of  poetry 
and  in  his  classification  of  the  poems  mentioned  he  has 
been  to  some  extent  guided  by  Dr.  Gummere's  Handbook 
of  Poetics.  The  method  of  scansion  suggested,  however,  is 
his  own,  formed  from  ideas  gathered  from  many  sources 
after  a  long  experience  as  a  teacher  of  poetry.  Teachers 
will  find  that  a  thorough  understanding  of  some  such 
method  will  aid  the  learner  in  the  appreciation  of  poetry. 

W.  B. 

ERASMUS  HALL  HIGH  SCHOOL, 
Brooklyn,  Nov.  i,  1903. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION  PAGK 

ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON    .         ix 

THE  POETRY  OF  TENNYSON xvi 

THE  "  IDYLLS  OF  THE  KING  " xxiii 

TENNYSON'S  BLANK  VERSE xxx 

REFERENCES xxxviii 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE xl 

KNIGHTS  OF  THE  ROUND  TABLE xliv 

IDYLLS  OF  THE  KING 

GARETH  AND  LYNETTE   .....  i 

LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE 49 

THE  PASSING  OF  ARTHUR 95 

NOTES 

GARETH  AND  LYNETTE in 

LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE 121 

THE  PASSING  OF  ARTHUR 126 


vii 


INTRODUCTION 


ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON 

"If  a  man  were  permitted  to  make  all  the  ballads  of  a 
nation,  he  need  not  care  who  should  make  the  laws."  For 
more  than  fifty  years  Alfred  Tennyson  wrote  songs  for  the 
English-speaking  peoples,  and  his  poetry  had  an  ever- 
increasing  effect  on  the  laws  and  on  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  his  countrymen.  With  the  inspiration  of  a  seer 
or  prophet  he  outlined  a  poet's  solution  of  political,  social, 
and  moral  questions,  and  his  persuasive  utterances  produced 
action  and  led  to  permanent  reform. 

Alfred  Tennyson  was  born  at  Somersby  in  Lincolnshire. 
His  father,  the  Rev.  George  Clayton  Tennyson,  as  the  elder 
of  two  sons,  was  naturally  the  heir  to  an  estate  called 
Bayons  Manor ;  but  through  some  caprice  of  fortune  he 
had  been  disinherited.  The  condition  of  the 
'rn  i8oqUSt  6>  family  was  thus  one  of  forced  content  with  a 
fairly  good  income  from  three  church  livings, 
—  Somersby,  Benniworth,  and  Great  Grimsby.  The  parson- 
age was  not  a  lonely  place,  however,  for  in  less  than  four- 
teen years  there  came  into  it  twelve  children,  —  eight  boys 
and  four  girls.  The  firstborn  died  in  infancy,  leaving  Alfred 
as  the  third  boy  in  this  family  of  eleven,  all  of  whom  lived 
to  an  advanced  age. 

At  seven  years  of  age  Alfred  was  sent  to  a  grammar 
school  at  Louth,  where  he  remained  for  four  years  under 
"a  tempestuous,  flogging  master  of  the  old  stamp."  He 


X  INTRODUCTION 

had  a  sensitive  poetic  nature,  and  his  companions  were 
rough  and  even  cruel ;  so  these  were  unhappy  years.  Then 
he  returned  to  his  home  to  study  with  his 
fatner>  who  was  an  excellent  language  scholar. 
Thus  passed  the  formative  years  of  his  life, 
with  his  ten  brothers  and  sisters,  the  oldest  thirteen  and 
the  youngest  a  mere  babe.  The  boys  played  at  tourna- 
ment when  they  were  in  the  field.  In  the  house  they  wrote 
stories  and  composed  verses  to  be  read  at  the  dinner  table. 
Even  then,  it  is  remembered,  Alfred  was  the  most  expert, 
his  stories  being  often  literary  and  dramatic.  It  was  a 
poetic  family.  The  father,  who  wrote  poetry,  was  a  severe 
though  sympathetic  critic ;  and  under  his  direction  Alfred 
received  lessons  that  tended  to  shape  his  style  and  improve 
his  art.  At  eight  years  of  age  he  wrote  blank  verse  ;  before 
he  was  thirteen  he  had  written  an  epic  poem  of  six  thousand 
lines.  Such  was  the  merit  of  his  verses  that  his  father 
exclaimed,  "  If  Alfred  die,  one  of  the  greatest  poets  will  have 
gone."  The  climax  of  this  period  was  reached  when  the 
volume  of  poems  entitled  Poems  of  Two  Brothers  appeared. 
It  was,  however,  the  work  of  three  brothers,  Frederick, 
Charles,  and  Alfred  Tennyson.  Alfred  was  then  eighteen 
years  old. 

Frederick,  the  oldest  living  brother,  already  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  had  won  a  university  medal  for  Greek 
odes  when  Charles  and  Alfred  entered.  Charles  soon 
secured  a  scholarship  by  the  beauty  of  his  translations. 
Alfred  about  the  same  time  won  the  Chancellor's  prize 
medal  for  original  poems,  his  subject  being  Timbuctoo.  The 
strong  personality  of  the  poet  attracted  attention.  He  was 
six  feet  tall,  broad  chested,  strong  limbed,  with  deep  eyes 
and  an  ample  forehead  crowned  with  dark  wavy  hair.  Yet 
his  shyness  was  such  that  he  sought  &  substitute  when 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

summoned  to  read  his  prize  poem  at  Commencement.     As 

a  member  of  a  society  of  college  men  called  the  "Apostles," 

however,  this  shyness  left  him,  and  he  was 

Tennyson  at  Cam-  . 

bridge,  February,  always  ready  to  recite  ballads  of  his  own  com- 
1828,  to  February,  position  or  even  to  extemporize  verses  when 
called  on  to  entertain.  "Alfred  Tennyson  was 
our  hero,  the  great  hero  of  our  day,"  said  Fanny  Kemble, 
the  celebrated  actress,  who  used  to  visit  her  brother  who 
also  was  at  Cambridge.  In  this  society  of  the  "Apostles  " 
Tennyson  formed  lifelong  friendships  with  Milnes  (afterward 
Lord  Houghton),  Trench  (afterward  Archbishop),  Alford 
(afterward  Dean  of  Canterbury),  Merivale  (afterward  Dean 
of  Ely),  and  Hallam,  whom  he  immortalized  in  In  Memo- 
riam.  In  the  meetings  of  this  society  were  discussed  all  the 
leading  social  and  political  questions  of  the  day.  Tennyson 
preached  the  onward  progress  of  liberty,  while  he  opposed 
revolutionary  license.  In  the  summer  of  1830  there  was 
an  insurrection  in  Spain  against  the  tyranny  of  the  king. 
Tennyson  and  Hallam,  sympathizing  with  the  insurgents, 
journeyed  to  the  Pyrenees  with  money  to  assist  the  revo- 
lutionists. They  succeeded  in  delivering  the  money  and 
in  escaping  the  watchfulness  of  the  Spanish  authorities. 
Thus  he  was  willing  to  a^t  as  well  as  to  preach.  In  this 
year  also  appeared  his  volume  of  Poems  chiefly  Lyrical. 
The  next  year  he  left  Cambridge  to  begin  his  life  work 
as  poet. 

One  month  after  Tennyson's  departure  from  the  Univer- 
sity his  father  died,  and  the  care  of  a  large  family  fell  on 
the  young  poet,  though  there  was  an  income 
sufficiently  great  to  enable  them  all  to  live 
comfortably.       For    nearly   twenty   years    he 
studied  his  art ;  at  times  severely  criticised,  at  others  receiv- 
ing his  due  reward  of  praise.     He  was  struggling  to  become 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

the  master  poet,  and  full  recognition  came  in  the  end.  The 
year  1850  is  memorable  for  three  events  in  the  poet's  life, 
—  the  publication  of  In  Memoriam,  his  marriage,  and  the 
laureateship. 

At  Cambridge  Tennyson  met  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  and 
the  two  became  warm  friends.  Though  they  were  com- 
petitors in  the  race  for  the  Chancellor's  prize,  this  made 
no  difference  in  their  friendship.  After  Tennyson  left  the 

University,  Hallam  became  a  frequent  vis- 
" in  Memoriam."  itor  at  the  Tennyson  home,  and  there  he  met 

Alfred's  sister,  Emilia,  to  whom  he  became 
betrothed.  Hallam  was  the  most  sympathetic  critic  of 
Tennyson's  poems,  and  verses  seldom  passed  to  the  pub- 
lic until  they  had  received  the  friend's  sanction.  They 
twice  visited  the  continent  together,  and  they  were  equally 
concerned  in  the  social  and  political  conditions  of  the 
time,  meditating  and  debating  great  plans  of  reform.  Sud- 
denly the  friendship  was  severed;  Hallam  died  at  Vienna 
on  September  15,  1833.  He  was  there  with  his  father. 
"  When  Mr.  Hallam  returned  from  his  daily  walk,  he  saw 
Arthur  asleep  as  he  supposed  upon  the  couch ;  a  blood 
vessel  near  the  brain  had  suddenly  burst;  it  was  not  sleep 
but  death."  A  letter  from  Arthur's  uncle  announced  the 
sad  news  to  Alfred,  and  the  course  of  the  poet's  life  was 
changed.  In  the  next  two  years  he  produced  a  small  vol- 
ume of  poems,  and  in  1847  The  Princess  appeared;  but  the 
poet  was  brooding  over  the  death  of  his  friend  and  over 
all  that  death  means.  In  1850  his  great  memorial  poem, 
In  Memoriam,  was  printed.  Stopford  Brooke  calls  it  "the 
most  complete,  most  rounded  to  a  polished  sphere,  of  the 
longer  poems  of  Tennyson."  This  poem  not  only  fixed 
his  rank  as  a  poet,  but  gave  him  ready  money  and  income 
sufficient  to  enable  him  to  consider  the  subject  of  marriage. 


INTRODUCTION  xili 

Tennyson's  brother  Charles  was  married  in  1836.  Alfred 
walked  into  the  church  with  the  bride's  younger  sister, 
Emily  Sarah  Sellwood,  a  slender,  beautiful  girl  of  seventeen. 
They  had  met  six  years  before,  but  this  second  meeting 
convinced  Tennyson  that  his  feeling  toward  her  was  more 
than  that  of  friendship.  Very  soon  an  engagement  existed 
between  them,  but  marriage  was  deferred  be- 

Tennyson's  cause  of  lack  of  funds.     Tennyson's  income 

mamage .  * 

was   small.     He  and  his  family  lost  heavily 

in  an  investment.  So  far  away  did  marriage  seem  that  the 
poet  generously  gave  the  woman  he  loved  her  freedom. 
Even  with  his  longings  for  a  better  income,  when,  in  1845, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  secured  for  him  an  annual  pension  of  .£200, 
he  accepted  it  on  his  own  conditions,  writing  :  "  I  have  done 
nothing  slavish  to  get  it.  I  never  even  solicited  for  it  by 
myself  or  thro'  others.  It  was  all  done  for  me  without  a 
word  or  hint  from  me,  and  Peel  tells  me  I  need  not  by  it  be 
fettered  in  the  public  expression  of  any  opinion  I  choose 
to  take  up."  When,  however,  In  Memoriam  was  printed, 
the  poet  found  himself  with  a  bank  account  of  ^300  and  the 
promise  of  a  regular  income  from  his  ppems  sufficient  to 
warrant  his  marriage.  On  June  13,  1850,  Alfred  Tennyson 
and  Emily  Sellwood  became  husband  and  wife.  "  The  peace 
of  God  came  into  my  life  before  the  altar  when  I  wedded 
her,"  he  said  in  after  life;  and  on  another  occasion  to  some 
of  his  most  intimate  friends  he  remarked :  "  I  have  known 
many  women  who  were  excellent,  one  in  one  way,  another 
in  another  way,  but  this  woman  is  the  noblest  woman  I  have 
ever  known."  The  wedding  was  followed  very  closely  by 
the  laureateship. 

Wordsworth  had  been  poet  laureate,  but  he  died  in  1850. 
In  November  the  appointment  came  to  Tennyson,  owing, 
it  is  asserted,  "  chiefly  to  Prince  Albert's  admiration  for 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

In  Memoriam"  Upon  receiving  the  letter  announcing  that 
he  was  the  choice  of  the  queen  for  the  vacant  laureateship 
he  wrote  two  letters,  one  declining  and  one  accepting,  deter- 
mining to  rely  on  the  advice  of  friends  in  the 
laureate*  matter  of  mailing  the  letters.  "  I  have  no 

passion  for  courts,  but  a  great  love  of  privacy," 
he  wrote  to  one.  He  was  advised  by  them  not  to  decline  it 
This  office  added  about  ^100  to  his  annual  income.  From 
this  time  he  continued  in  easy  circumstances,  with  an  ever- 
increasing  revenue. 

In  1853  the  annual  income  from  Tennyson's  books  was 
^"500.  Two  years  later  he  purchased  the  Farringford  house 
on  the  Isle  of  Wight.  This  became  his  permanent  home, 
though  in  1868  he  built  a  summer  house  at  Aldworth  in 
Surrey.  Many  honors  now  came  to  him.  In  1855  the 
University  of  Oxford  conferred  on  him  the 
degree  of  D.C.L.  In  a  few  years  he  had  the 
honor  to  decline  the  lord  rectorship  of  Glas- 
gow University.  He  had  not  only  kept  the  friends  of  his 
early  life,  but  made  new  friendships.  Prince  Albert  and 
Gladstone  visited  him  at  Farringford.  The  Duke  of  Argyll 
became  a  firm  friend,  and  the  living  authors  such  as  Brown- 
ing, Carlyle,  Ruskin,  Thackeray,  Fitzgerald,  Huxley,  Bage- 
hot,  and  Harrison  boasted  and  valued  his  companionship. 
In  1873  Tennyson  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Gladstone 
offering  a  baronetcy  from  the  queen.  In  answer  he  wrote, 
"I  had  rather  we  should  remain  plain  Mr.  and  Mrs.  and 
that,  if  it  were  possible,  the  title  should  first  be  assumed  by 
our  son."  This  did  not  seem  wise  and  so  passed  by.  Again 
the  next  year  the  offer  was  renewed  through  Mr.  Disraeli, 
who  was  then  premier.  Tennyson  still  insisted  on  asking 
that  the  honor  be  reserved  for  his  son,  but  as  this  was  con- 
trary to  all  precedent,  the  baronetcy  passed  by  him  again. 


INTRODUCTION  XV 

Nine  years  later,  through  Mr.  Gladstone  the  queen  made 
an  offer  of  a  peerage.  This  time  the  poet  was  approached 
with  much  diplomacy,  Mr.  Gladstone  first  suggesting  the 
idea  to  Tennyson's  son.  It  was  while  the  Tennysons  and 
Gladstones  were  on  a  voyage.  The  son  watched  his  oppor- 
tunity and  opened  the  subject.  Then  Mr.  Gladstone  came 
and  urged  the  matter  on  the  poet.  Tennyson  took  two  or 
three  days  to  consider  the  offer ;  then  he  said  to  his  son,  "  By 
Gladstone's  advice  I  have  consented  to  take  the  peerage,  but 
for  my  own  part  I  shall  regret  my  simple  name  all  my  life." 
About  this  matter  Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  the  poet's  son,  "  I 
think  that  by  it  we  certainly  succeeded  in  decorating  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  I  think  your  father  will  also  be  pleased 
with  having  given,  as  I  believe,  some  real  pleasure  to  the 
Queen  in  the  grant  of  this  honor."  When  Tennyson  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords  he  refused  to  sit  with  either 
party.  "  He  felt  that  he  must  be  free  to  vote  for  that  which 
seemed  to  him  best  for  the  empire."  The  first  bill  for  which 
he  voted  was  the  Extension  of  the  Franchise.  This  he 
held  to  be  a  "matter  of  justice,"  and  he  always  acted  on 
that  principle. 

Tennyson  was  in  his  seventy-fifth  year  when  he  attained 

to  the  peerage ;  still  he  was  a  very  active  man.     His  political 

utterances  were  not  in  the  form  of  speeches  to 

Tennyson's  last  ...  ...... 

years  and  his  the  lords,  but  in  the  form  of  stirnng  lyrics,  — 
death,  October  e,  his  fjrst  as  a  peer  being  his  poem  Freedom, 
published  in  Macmillaii s  Magazine  for  Decem- 
ber, 1884.  About  this  time,  when  the  Franchise  Bill  was 
under  discussion,  he  wrote  to  Gladstone,  who  was  premier : 

Steersman,  be  not  precipitate  in  thine  act 
Of  steering,  for  the  river  here,  my  friend, 
Parts  in  two  channels,  moving  to  one  end  — 
This  goes  straight  forward  to  the  cataract: 


XVI  INTRODUCTION 

That  streams  about  the  bend ; 

But  tho'  the  cataract  seem  the  nearer  way, 

Whate'er  the  crowd  on  either  bank  may  say, 

Take  thou  the  "bend,"  'twill  save  thee  many  a  day. 

Tennyson  enjoyed  the  peerage  for  eight  years,  working, 
planning,  writing.  In  his  eighty-first  year  he  wrote  Crossing 
the  Bar.  One  October  day  while  passing  from  Aldworth  to 
Farringford  he  heard  the  "moaning  of  the  bar,"  and  the 
poem  was  written.  His  wish  that  it  be  placed  at  the  end 
of  all  editions  of  his  poems  has  been  observed.  When  he 
died,  a  life  that  had  been  all  music  passed  away  in  song; 
singing,  he  "  crost  the  bar." 


THE   POETRY   OF   TENNYSON 

De  Quincey  mentions  two  elements  of  literary  style, — 
matter  and  manner.     Buffon's  well-known  definition,  "  Style 
is  of  the  man  himself,"  adds  a  third,  and  a 
Tennyson's  style,  very  important  one, — the  personality  or  indi- 
viduality of  the  writer.     These  three  elements 
may  easily  be  found  in  the  style  of  Tennyson. 

As  to  his  matter,  Stopford  Brooke  says  that  "  he  wrote  of 
the  everyday  loves  and  duties  of  men  and  women  ;  of  the 
aspirations  and  trials  which  are  common  to  all 
(a)  His  matter.  ages  and  classes."  Tennyson's  son,  Hallam, 
relates  how  the  poet  was  accustomed  to  meet 
Carlyle,  Thackeray,  Dickens,  Huxley,  and  other  thoughtful 
men  of  all  professions  and  of  all  degrees  of  attainment. 
Their  talk  would  touch  largely  on  politics,  philosophy,  and 
especially  on  the  new  speculations  rife  on  every  side.  Upon 
projects  of  reform  or  of  the  great  movements  of  philan- 
thropy he  reflected  much.  This  reflection  furnished  the 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

matter  for  his  poetry ;  this  matter  he  molded  into  art  form. 
The  Princess  offered  a  poet's  solution  of  the  woman  ques- 
tion as  it  stood  nearly  sixty  years  ago.  Locksley  Hall  repre- 
sented "  young  life,  its  good  side,  its  deficiencies,  and  its 
yearnings."  Tennyson  called  In  Memoriam  "  The  Way  of 
the  Soul,"  and  Maud  a  "  Drama  of  the  Soul "  set  in  a  land- 
scape glorified  by  love.  But  the  matter  of  Tennyson's 
poetry  is  spiritualized  by  the  personality  of  the  man. 

There  must  have  been  something  great  in  Tennyson  the 

man.     The  queen  received  him  cordially  from  time  to  time. 

The  Prince  Consort,  the  princesses,  Gladstone, 

W  Haii?yrSOD"  Huxlev>  and  the  Duke  of  ArgYU  were  visitors 
at  Farringford.  A  few  of  the  elements  of  the 
poet's  individuality  have  been  noted  by  his  critics.  The 
great  French  writer,  Taine,  says,  "  Without  being  a  pedant, 
he  is  moral.  .  .  .  He  speaks  of  God  and  the  soul  nobly, 
tenderly,  without  ecclesiastical  prejudice."  Canon  Farrar 
says,  "  Tennyson,  though  he  had  his  moods  of  sorrow  and 
perplexity,  was  an  optimist,  who  had  achieved  his  right  to 
optimism  by  the  fighting  down  of  despair  and  doubt."  Pro- 
fessor Dowden  says  Mr.  Tennyson  "  has  a  strong  dignity 
and  efficiency  of  law,  and  law  understood  in  its  widest  mean- 
ing. Energy  nobly  controlled,  and  ordered  activity,  delight 
his  imagination.  Violence,  extravagance,  immoderate  force, 
the  swerving  from  appointed  ends,  revolt, — these  are  with 
^tr.  Tennyson  the  supreme  manifestations  of  evil."  And 
Dr.  Van  Dyke  adds,  "  His  music  must  thrill  us  with  the  con- 
viction that  the  humblest  child  of  man  has  a  duty,  an  ideal, 
a  destiny."  Throughout  his  life  he  allied  himself  against  the 
cry  of  "Art  for  art's  sake  " ;  he  was  "  a  poet  with  a  message." 
From  his  earliest  attempts  Tennyson  endeavored  to  culti- 
vate the  highest  art  of  poetic  expression.  He  was  accustomed 
to  modify  the  old  adage  so  that  it  read,  Poeta  nascitur  et  fii 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

(the  poet  is  both  born  and  made).  Some  of  his  poems  were 
subjected  to  many  changes  and  several  complete  revisions. 

It  seemed  to  be  the  poet's  aim  to  paint  his 
(c)  His  manner,  scenes  vividly,  to  express  his  thoughts  clearly 

and  precisely,  to  adorn  his  pages  with  jewels 
of  thought  and  figures  of  beauty,  and  to  give  the  whole  the 
color  of  rich  romance.  There  are  critics  of  note,  however, 
who  have  charged  Tennyson  with  an  over-ornateness.  Taine 
says,  "  He  gave  them  [his  poems]  too  much  adornment  and 
polishing ;  he  seemed  like  an  Epicurean  in  style  as  well  as  in 
beauty."  On  the  other  hand,  Bagehot  asserts  that  "  Tenny- 
son has  painted  with  pure  art."  Although  his  style  is  beset 
with  mannerisms  offensive  to  some,  although  he  reveled  in 
alliteration  and  delighted  in  compound  words  three  or  four 
deep,  such  as  "  one-day-seen  "  and  "  nine-years-fought-for," 
Tennyson  became  so  skilled  in  the  use  of  ornamentation 
that  criticism  was  silenced.  The  poet  proved  himself  supe- 
rior to  his  critics  in  artistic  judgment  and  in  taste.  His  own 
dictum  about  literary  work  was,  "An  artist  should  get  his 
workmanship  as  good  as  he  can,  and  make  his  work  as  per- 
fect as  possible.  A  small  vessel  built  on  fine  lines  is  likely 
to  float  further  down  the  stream  of  time  than  a  big  raft." 
So  he  strove  to  make  every  verse  he  composed  as  artistically 
correct  as  he  was  able  to  make  it. 

The  Greeks  recognized  three  kinds  of  poetry,  —  lyric,  epic, 
and  dramatic.  Tennyson  tried  all  three.  In  his  early  life 
the  lyric  element  predominated ;  next  "  the  melody  of  the 

lyric  is  wedded  to  the  sentiment  and  picture 
Threpeoekti^ds  of  of  the  idyll."  The  idyll  merges  into  the  epic. 

There  are,  too,  the  mock  heroic,  The  Princess, 
and  the  monodrama,  Maud,  with  their  beautiful  inter-lyrics ; 
and  these  lead  to  the  drama.  First,  then,  as  a  lyric  poet. 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

Lyric  poetry  is  the  artistic  expression  of  the  sentiments 
and  emotions,  that  is,  it  is  subjective.  The  poet  "lets  his 
illumined  being  o'errun  "  in  music  and  song.  The  action 
of  the  lyric  is  usually  rapid ;  the  time  quick ; 

a  the  verse  itself  musical-  The  poet  is  free 
to  invent  forms.  Many  of  Tennyson's  lyric 
measures  are  wholly  his  own ;  while  others  have  been  so 
treated  by  him  as  to  make  them  virtually  new.  Among 
those  which  the  poet  himself  admired  were  that  of  The  Daisy, 
some  of  the  anapestic  movements  in  Maud,  and  the  "  long- 
rolling  rhythm  of  his  ode  To  Virgil"  Alfred  Tennyson's 
contribution  to  the  volume  of  verse  entitled  Poems  of  Two 
Brothers  was  largely  lyric.  At  Cambridge,  in  certain  college 
rooms,  he  would  often  declaim  his  own  poems  and  even 
"improvise  verses  by  the  score,  full  of  lyrical  passion."  In 
his  first  volume,  Poems  chiefly  Lyrical,  "  the  variety  of  his 
lyrical  measures  "  was  noted.  In  the  volume  of  1842  appeared 
St.  Agnes'  Eve  and  Sir  Galahad,  which  Stedman  pronounces 
the  "  purest  and  highest  of  all  his  lyrical  pieces."  The  Talk- 
ing Oak  of  this  same  volume  is  called  the  "nonpareil  of 
sustained  lyrics  in  quatrain  verse."  Throughout  his  long 
lifetime  the  lyric  fires  continued  to  burn  intensely ;  for  nearly 
every  year  gave  the  world  new  songs  and  ballads.  What 
he  furnished  is  usually  described  in  the  superlative  degree. 
Landor  called  his  Hands  all  Round  "  incomparably  the  best 
(convivial)  lyric  in  the  language."  The  spirit  of  English 
freedom  and  patriotism  breathes  through  such  songs  as  Love 
thou  thy  land,  Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights,  England  and 
America  in  1782,  and  The  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade.  The 
Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  is  the  most  ambi- 
tious of  the  patriotic  lyrics. ,  Stedman  says,  "  Few  will  deny 
that,  taken  together,  the  five  melodies,  — As  through  the  land, 
Sweet  and  low,  The  splendor  falls  on  castle  walls,  Home  they 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

brought  her  warrior  dead,  and  Ask  me  no  more! — that  these 
constitute  the  finest  group  of  songs  produced  in  our  century"  ; 
and  he  adds,  "the  Bugle  Song  seems  to  many  the  most 
perfect  English  lyric  since  the  time  of  Shakespeare."  The 
great  elegy,  In  Memoriam,  is  a  chain  of  lyrics,  and  Maud 
is  more  lyric  than  dramatic.  Crossing  the  Bar,  written  in 
his  eighty-first  year,  shows  the  lyric  power  still  unimpaired. 
In  all  this  work  he  was  cheered  and  encouraged  by  Lady 
Tennyson,  who  furnished  the  musical  setting  for  several  of 
his  songs  and  the  inspiration  for  some  of  his  idylls.  The 
idyll,  indeed,  was  the  stepping-stone  from  the  lyric  to  the  epic. 
The  word  "idyll"  means  "a  little  picture."  Quiet  and 
homely  scenes  are  fitting  subjects  for  this  kind  of  poetry ;  for 
"  the  idyll  must  be  simple,  calm,  more  concerned  with  situa- 
tion than  with  action."  Tennyson's  short  narrative  poems 

giving  pictures  of  simple  country  life  are 
The  idyll.  idylls,  and  he  wrote  many  of  this  kind.  The 

Gardener's  Daughter,  The  Miller's  Daughter, 
and  Godiva  are  purely  idyllic  pieces.  In  Tennyson's  poetry 
there  is  no  dividing  line  between  the  lyric  and  the  idyll  and 
the  idyll  and  the  epic.  The  Brook  is  an  idyll  containing  an 
inter-lyric;  The  Princess  is  a  mock  heroic  poem  containing 
several  lyrics  and  one  idyll. 

Epic  poetry,  Dr.  Gummere  says,  is  that  kind  in  which  the 
poet  himself  narrates  a  story  as  if  he  were  present.  It  is 
simple  in  construction,  yet  it  admits  of  the  episode  and  the 
dialogue.  The  meter  of  the  lyric  may  vary  with  the  impulses 
of  thought ;  that  of  the  epic  must  be  uniform.  The  lyric 

deals  with  the  present ;  the  grand  epic  with 

the  Past>  The  ePic  enforces  no  moral  although 
it  may  hold  one  in  solution.  Some  of  Tenny- 
son's idylls  are  epics.  Such  ballads  as  The  Revenge,  The 
Defence  of  Lucknow,  and  The  Voyage  of  Maeldune  are  good 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

examples  of  the  ballad-epic.  Enoch  Arden  and  Dora  repre- 
sent another  kind  of  epic,  —  the  simple,  touching  tale.  Tenny- 
son's nearest  approach  to  a  grand  epic  was  his  Idylls  of  the 
King.  A  friend  of  the  poet  called  this  work  "  Epylls  of  the 
King."  "  According  to  him  they  were  little  epics  (not  idylls) 
woven  into  an  epical  unity."  Still  the  Idylls  of  the  King 
are  idyllic ;  they  "  are  full  of  little  pictures  which  show  that 
Tennyson  has  studied  nature  at  first-hand,  and  that  he 

understood  how  to  catch  and  reproduce  the 
T  the' Kiif U  "°f  most  fleeting  and  delicate  expressions  of  her 

face."  This  poem  was  the  growth  of  nearly 
half  a  century.  It  was  late  in  life  when  Tennyson  turned  to 
the  drama  as  the  medium  of  art  expression. 

"The  drama  is  imitated  human  action."    Dramatic  poetry 
partakes  of  the  nature  of  both  the  epic  and  the  lyric;   it 

deals  with  the  past,  but  represents  past  actions 
Dramatic  poetry,  as  actually  occurring  before  our  eyes.  The 

basis,  then,  is  epic,  but  there  are  the  lyric 
sentiment,  action,  and  fire.  Characters  live  and  act  before 
us  and  speak  in  our  presence.  Thus  the  poetry  is  heightened 
by  the  varying  situations.  Tennyson  was  sixty-five  years  of 
age  when  his  first  play  was  published.  Queen  Mary,  Harold, 
and  Heckettorm  what  he  called  his  "  historical  trilogy."  The 
poet's  idea  was  to  portray  the  making  of  England :  Harold 

reproduces  the  great  conflict  between  Danes, 
Tennyson's  Saxons,  and  Normans;  Becket  deals  with  the 

dramas. 

struggle  between  the  Crown  and  the  Church ; 
Queen  Mary  represents  the  rise  of  the  individual  into  freedom. 
Other  dramas  are  The  Foresters,  The  Cup,  and  The  Falcon. 
The  value  of  his  dramatic  work  as  compared  with  his  other 
poetry  has  been  questioned. 

In  Maud,  Locksley  Hall,  and  other  pieces,  Tennyson  used 
the  monodrama,  —  a  form  very  popul  ar  with  Browning.    When 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

he  undertook  the  drama  proper  he  was  prepared  for  adverse 
criticism.  There  have,  however,  been  given  two  estimates 
of  his  dramatic  work,  as  there  are  two  kinds  of  modern 
drama,  —  the  drama  of  action  and  the  drama  of  living.  In 
the  one  the  characters  move  before  our  eyes 

and  in  an  artificial  way  act  their  little  Parts ; 

in  the  other  the  characters  live  before  our 
eyes.  The  contrast  is  felt  when  Shakespeare's  Othello  is 
compared  with  Browning's  Luria.  Othello  talks  and  acts ; 
Luria  says  little,  acts  little,  but  lives  the  hero.  Of  course  on 
the  stage  the  drama  of  action  is  the  more  popular.  Tenny- 
son's were  rather  dramas  of  living.  One  critic,  therefore, 
says  that  he  is  not  a  true  dramatic  poet  because  he  has  the 
limitations  of  his  day  and  generation  ;  he  is  romantic  and 
not  dramatic.  Another  says:  "Tennyson  is  one  of  the  great 
voices  of  modern  times.  He  is  thoroughly  penetrated  with 
the  spirit  of  the  era,  and  his  methods  are  throughout  such 
as  that  spirit  dictates.  His  plays  are  not  so  much  the 
delineation  of  great  deeds  as  they  are  the  studies  of  the 
motives  which  lie  behind  those  deeds.  .  .  .  Green,  the  his- 
torian of  England,  says,  '  All  my  researches  into  the  annals 
of  the  twelfth  century  have  not  given  me  so  vivid  a  concep- 
tion of  the  character  of  Henry  II.  as  was  embodied  in  Tenny- 
son's Beckett  "  Dr.  Van  Dyke  has  expressed  the  opinion 
that  "  it  is  not  too  daring  to  predict  that  the  day  is  coming 
when  the  study  of  Shakespeare's  historical  plays  will  be 
reckoned  no  more  important  to  an  understanding  of  English 
history  than  the  study  of  Tennyson's  trilogy !  " 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 


THE  "IDYLLS   OF   THE  KING" 

Tennyson's  Idylls  of  the  King  has  been  called  the  "  Epic 
of  Arthur."  The  Grand  Epic  may  deal  with  the  mythology 
or  the  religion  of  a  people,  or  it  may  relate  the  legends  that 
gather  about  the  history  of  the  past.  Milton  chose  for  his 
great  epic  the  theme  of  "man's  first  disobedience"  and  the 
bringing  of  "  Death  into  the  world,"  a  subject  that  deeply 
concerned  every  human  being  and  enabled  him  to  write 
a  Grand  Epic ;  for  a  work  of  great  art  must  have  a  great 
subject.  Tennyson,  combining  the  legendary  with  the  myth- 
ical, embodied  in  his  poem  a  Christian  ideal  that  makes  it 
also  a  Grand  Epic.  The  Epic  of  Arthur  is  a  double  allegory ; 
first,  as  "  shadowing  Sense  at  war  with  Soul " ;  next,  as  a 
poem  of  "  The  Year  and  the  Soul." 

As  the  Epic  of  Arthur  the  poem  is  legendary.  Arthur  was 
a  king  of  Britain  who  flourished  in  that  dark 

The  ' '  Epic  of  ,  .     . 

Arthur."  and  stormy  period  when,  the  protecting  arm  of 
Rome  having  been  withdrawn,  the  weakened 
people  were  left  subject  to  the  inroads  of  the  invading  Saxon. 
In  this  struggle  of  Christian  against  pagan,  King  Arthur,  by 
uniting  the  native  kings  and  barons  in  a  confederacy,  was 
able  to  stand  successfully  against  the  incoming  Northmen 
and  even  to  drive  them  back.  Such  was  his  fame  that  suc- 
ceeding generations  came  to  hold  him  in  great  veneration. 
As  time  passed,  legends  gathered  around  the  name  of  the 
great  Arthur.  For  two  or  three  centuries  these  grew  by 
oral  repetition,  until,  after  the  eighth  century,  a  monk  named 
Nennius  put  in  Latin  a  written  account  of  the  wars  of  Arthur, 
naming  the  twelve  great  battles  which  this  king  fought  and 
won.  In  written  form  this  account  passed  from  hand  to 
hand,  the  stories  growing  in  number  and  in  interest.  In  one 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

form  or  another  the  legends  of  Arthur  found  their  way  across 
the  English  Channel.  The  trouveres  of  northern  France 
chanted  the  old  ones  and  created  new.  The  stories  became 
popular  at  the  court  of  the  Plantagenet  kings,  eventually 
forming  what  has  been  called  the  "Arthurian 
The  "Arthurian  Cycie  of  Romance."  Then  through  many 
Romance."  hands  they  passed  into  Anglo-Saxon  and  into 

modern  English. 

The  edition  of  the  Arthurian  legends  which  most  influenced 
Tennyson  was  that  of  Sir  Thomas  Malory,  a  knight  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  whose  Morte  Darthur  was 
Polished  in  1485.  He  seems  to  have  added 
the  story  of  Gareth  and  Lynette.  Though  he 
added  little  else,  "he  selected  the  most  interesting  things 
with  an  almost  invariable  sureness,  though  there  are  one  or 
two  omissions ;  and  he  omitted  the  less  interesting  parts 
with  a  sureness  to  which  there  are  hardly  any  exceptions  at 
all.  He  grasped,  and  this  is  his  great  and  saving  merit  as 
an  author,  the  one  central  fact  of  the  story  —  that  in  the 
combination  of  the  Quest  of  the  Grail  with  the  loves  of 
Lancelot  and  Guinevere,  lay  the  kernel  at  once  and  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter."  Tennyson,  however,  has 
made  the  old  legends  his  own,  "  restored  the  idealism,  and 
infused  into  them  a  spirit  of  modern  thought  and  an  ethical 
significance,  setting  his  characters  in  a  rich  and  varied 
landscape ;  as  indeed  otherwise  their  archaic 

Preparation  for      stories  would  not  have  appealed  to  the  modern 
-writing  the  ,  ,  ,  .. 

•"idylls."  world  at  large.       In  1848  the  poet,  brooding 

over  the  Arthurian  romances,  made  a  tour  of 
•Cornwall,  and  eight  years  later,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  he 
visited  Wales,  where  he  wandered  over  the  mountains  and 
viewed  the  scenes  so  wonderfully  reproduced  in  his  verse 
pictures. 


INTRODUCTION  XXV 

With  Tennyson  himself  the  Idylls  were  a  growth  of  nearly 
half  a  century.  A  great  poem  comes  from  brooding,  and 
through  all  these  years  the  brooding  process  continued.  As 
early  as  1832  the  poet  began  to  draw  on  the  Arthurian 
legends  for  his  inspiration  to  song.  First  there  appeared 
the  lyric,  The  Lady  of  Shalott,  which  is  only  another  ver- 
sion of  Lancelot  and  Elaine,  The  1842  volume  contained 
Sir  Galahad,  Sir  Lancelot  and  Queen  Guinevere,  and  Morte 
d' Arthur  (which  forms  a  part  of  his  present  The  Passing 
of  Arthur}.  The  poet  was  just  experimenting;  it  was  not 
till  1859  that  he  published  the  first  installment,  Enid,  Vivien, 
Elaine,  Guinevere.  Then  followed  a  rest  of  ten 
years,  after  which  (1869)  a  volume  appeared 
containing  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  The  Holy 
Grail,  Pelleas  and  Ettarre,  and  The  Passing  of  Arthur.  In 
1871  The  Last  Tournament  was  privately  printed  and  then 
published  in  the  Contemporary  Rmiew;  republished  with 
Gareth  and  Lynette  in  1872.  These  with  Balin  and  Balan 
(published  in  1885)  make  up  the  twelve  books. 

The  complete  epic  as  finally  arranged  consists  of  a  Dedica- 
tion to  Prince  Albert,  an  Epilogue  To  the  Queen,  and  the  Idylls 
in  three  parts,  —  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  The  Round  Table, 
and  The  Passing  of  Arthur.     The  Round  Table  consists  of  ten 
idylls,  the  names  of  which  have  already  been  mentioned. 
The  main  action   of    the   plot   is   the    criminal  love  of 
Lancelot  and  Guinevere  working  to  overthrow 
The  plot.  the   unsuspecting  goodness  of   King  Arthur. 

While  each  of  the  idylls  of  The  Round  Table 
has  an  interest  of  its  own,  every  one  bears  upon  this  main 
action,  and  by  suggestion,  by  assertion,  and  by  foreshadow- 
ing helps  to  work  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  virtue. 
Though  virtue  seems  to  fail,  the  poet  has  given  his  own 
interpretation  to  his  theme  in  the  words : 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 

And  Gcd  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 

Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world.  .  .  ." 

As  for  the  meaning  of  the  poem,  Lord  Tennyson  would 
affirm,  "  Poetry  is  like  shot-silk  with  many  glancing  colors. 
Every  reader  must  find  his  own  interpretation  according  to 
his  ability,  and  according  to  his  sympathy  with  the  poet." 
Readers  who  have  most  sympathy  with  the 

poet  have  found  in  the  Idylls  °J the  Kins a 

double  allegory;  it  is  an  epic  of  "The  Year," 
and  also  a  poem  of  "  Sense  at  war  with  Soul." 

As  we  read  the  poem,  "  we  go  from  the  marriage  of  spring 
in  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  when  the  blossom  of  the  May  seems 
to  spread  its  perfume  over  the  whole  scene,  to  the  early 

summer  of  the  honeysuckle  in  Gareth,  the 
^The^ear  „  quickly  following  mowing-season  of  Geraint, 

and  the  sudden  summer-thunder-shower  of 
Vivien  —  thence  to  the  full  summer  of  Elaine,  with  oriel 
casements  standing  wide  for  heat  —  and  later,  to  the  sweep 
of  equinoctial  storms  and  broken  weather  of  The  Holy  Grail. 
Then  come  the  autumn  roses  and  branches  of  Pelleas,  and 
in  The  Last  Tournament  the  close  autumn-tide,  with  all  its 
slowly  mellowing  avenues,  through  which  we  see  Sir  Tristram 
riding  to  his  doom.  In  Guinevere  the  creeping  mists  of  com- 
ing winter  pervade  the  picture,  and  in  The  Passing  of  Arthur 
we  come  to  deep  winter  on  the  frozen  hills  :  —  and  the  end 
of  all,  on  the  year's  shortest  day  (taken  as  the  end  of  the 
year)  —  that  day  when  the  great  light  of  heaven  burned  at 
his  lowest  in  the  rolling  year.  The  King,  who  first  appears 
on  the  night  of  the  New  Year,  disappears  into  the  dawning 
light  of  the  new  sun  bringing  the  New  Year,  and  thus  the 
whole  action  of  the  poem  is  comprised  precisely  within  the 


INTRODUCTION  xxvil 

limits  of  the  one  principal  and  ever-recurring  cycle  of  time." 
In  Gareth  the  joy  of  life  "lives  in  the  eternal  youth  of 
goodness.  But  in  the  later  idylls  the  allowed  sin  not  only 
poisons  the  spring  of  life  in  the  summer,  but  spreads  its 
poison  through  the  whole  community." 

"  If  epic  unity  is  looked  for  in  the  Idylls,  we  find  it  not 
in  the  wrath  of  an  Achilles,  nor  in  the  wanderings  of  Ulysses, 

but  in  the  unending  war  of  humanity  in  all 
The  epic  of  ages,  —  the  world-wide  war  of  Sense  and 

with  soul."          Soul,  typified  in  individuals,  with  the  subtle 

interaction  of  character  upon  character,  the 
central  dominant  figure  being  the  pure,  generous,  tender, 
brave,  human-hearted  Arthur.  .  .  .  The  great  resolve  [to 
ennoble  and  spiritualize  mankind]  is  kept  so  long  as  all 
work  in  obedience  to  the  highest  and  holiest  law  within 
them."  A  single  sin  intrudes  and  is  allowed  to  remain  ; 
but  "  in  some  natures,  even  among  those  who  would  rather 
die  than  doubt,  it  breeds  suspicion  and  want  of  trust  in  God 
and  man.  Some  royal  souls  are  wrought  to  madness  against 
the  world.  Others,  and  some  among  the  highest  intellects, 
become  the  slaves  of  the  evil  which  is  at  first  half-disdained. 
Tender  natures  sink  under  the  blight;  that  which  is  of 
the  highest  is  then  working  their  death.  And  in  some,  as 
faith  declines,  religion  turns  from  practical  goodness  to 
superstition. 

"  This  madness  has  come  on  us  for  our  sin. 

"  These  seek  relief  in  selfish  spiritual  excitement,  not 
remembering  that  man's  duty  is  to  forget  self  in  the  service 
of  others,  and  to  let  visions  come  and  go,  and  that  so  only 
will  they  see  the  Holy  Grail.  In  the  idyll  of  Pelleas  and 
Ettarre  selfishness  has  turned  to  open  crime  ;  it  is  the  break- 
ing of  the  storm  ;  nevertheless  Pelleas  still  honors  his  sacred 


xxviii  INTRODUCTION 

vow  to  the  king  and  spares  the  wrong-doers.  Whereas  in 
The  Last  Tournament  the  wrong-doer  suffers  his  doom,  and 
is  cloven  through  the  brain.  We  have  here  the  deadly  proof 
of  the  kinship  of  all  willful  sin  in  murder  following  adultery 
in  closest  relation  of  cause  and  consequence,  —  the  prelude 
of  the  final  act  of  the  tragedy  which  culminates  in  the  tem- 
porary triumph  of  evil,  the  confusion  of  moral  order,  closing 
in  the  great  Battle  of  the  West." 

"  The  whole  poem  is  the  dream  of  man  coming  into  prac- 
tical life  and  ruined  by  one  sin.  Birth  is  a  mystery  and 
death  is  a  mystery,  and  in  the  midst  lies  the  table-land  of 
life,  and  its  struggles  and  performances.  It  is  not  the  his- 
tory of  one  man  or  one  generation  but  of  a  whole  cycle  of 
generations." 

Gareth  and  Lynette  represents  spring  and  the  springtime 
of  life.  The  young  man  in  strength  and  hope  and  ambi- 
tion seeks  knighthood.  After  attaining  this, 
L  nette*"d  ^e  *s  granted  his  first  quest  when  nature  is 
as  full  of  life  as  the  sharp-tongued  Lynette. 
The  interpretation  of  the  incident  of  the  "  blooming  boy  " 
is  twofold :  Gareth  found  "  Love  instead  of  Death " ;  and 
"who  knows  whether  indeed  Life  be  Death  and  Death 
Life  ?  "  The  allegorical  interpretation  is,  "  Death,  though 
apparently  the  most  formidable  antagonist  of  all,  turns  out 
to  be  no  real  foe,  and  his  fall  ushers  in  the  happier  day 
from  underground." 

Lancelot  and  Elaine  is  seventh  in  the  order  of  final  arrange- 
ment of  the  Idylls.  The  poison  of  the  one  sin  at  Arthur's 
court  has  spread  and  we  see  "  the  piteous  early  death  of  inno- 
cence and  hope  resulting  from  it."  Littledale  says:  "This 
is  perhaps  the  most  idyllic  of  the  Idylls  and  it  is  in  most 
respects  the  most  touching,  as  a  picture  of  Elaine's  love, 
'that  never  found  its  mortal  close,'  and  Lancelot's  great 


INTRODUCTION  xxix 

and  guilty  passion  '  that  marred  his  face  and  marked  it  ere 

his  time.'      Tennyson's  power  of  drawing  the  characters  of 

simple  and  lovable  women  is  here  seen  to  perfection.     It  is 

a  harder  task  to  depict  women  like  Enid  and 

••  Lancelot  ana      Elaine    fair  and  lovable  beings  with  all  the 
ElcLinc. 

charm   of  purity  and  goodness,  but  moving 

steadfastly  within  the  orbit  of  simple  duties,  and  lacking  the 

effect  of  deviation,  the  contrast  of  light  and  shade,  that  we 

see  in  the  lives  of  less  clear-natured  women.     In  delineating 

these  gracious  creatures,  Tennyson  stands  unrivaled  ;  and 

in  his  rare  sympathy  with  such  types  of  womanly  purity,  we 

may  perceive  the  almost  feminine  delicacy  of  his  mind." 

The  Passing  of  Arthur  is  the  concluding  idyll  of  the  poem, 

yet  it  was  the  first  one  of  the  series  to  be 

"Th^aSSi°g°f   written.     In  the  volume  of  1842  the  largest 

Arthur. ' ' 

part  of  the  poem  appeared  under  the  title  of 
Morte  d'  Arthur.  It  is  a  fitting  end  to  the  poem  in  every 
way.  Arthur  received  Excalibur  from  the  Lady  of  the  Lake 
and  he  returns  it  to  her.  Then  the  barge  appears  to  carry 
him  to  the  blest  Avilion.  "  The  symbolism  in  this  portion 
of  the  idyll  is  less  prominent,  and  the  story  is  told  in 
Homeric  simplicity  and  directness.  .  .  .  Arthur's  earthly 
realm  may  reel  back  into  the  beast,"  and  his  round  table 
may  be  dissolved  ;  but  his  purity  is  untarnished,  his  honor 
is  without  stain,  and  the  ideal  which  he  has  striven  to  real- 
ize has  lost  none  of  its  inward  vitality  and  significance. 
As  he  passes  from  earth  to  "vanish  into  light,"  he  already 
gives  a  forecast  of  his  return  as  the  representative  of  the 
new  chivalry,  when  he  shall  come 

With  all  good  things,  and  war  shall  be  no  more. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION 


TENNYSON'S    BLANK   VERSE 

Tennyson  "  is  the  creator  of  a  new  blank  verse,  different 
both  from  the  Elizabethan  and  from  the  Miltonic.  He  has 
known  how  to  modulate  it  to  every  theme,  and  to  elicit 
a  music  appropriate  to  each ;  attuning  it  in 
His  blank  verse,  turn  to  a  tender  and  lovely  grace,  as  in  The 
Gardener's  Daughter ;  to  the  severe  and  ideal 
majesty  of  the  antique,  as  in  Tithonus ;  to  meditative  thought, 
as  in  The  Ancient  Sage,  or  Akbar's  Dream ;  to  pathetic  or 
tragic  tales  of  contemporary  life,  as  in  Aylmer's  Field,  or 
Enoch  Arden ;  or  to  sustained  romantic  narration,  as  in  the 
Idylls.  No  [other]  English  poet  has  used  blank  verse  with 
such  flexible  variety,  or  drawn  from  it  so  large  a  compass  of 
tones ;  nor  has  any  maintained  it  so  equally  on  a  high  level 
of  excellence." 

The  artistic  and  musical  blank  verse  of  the  Idylls  of  the 
King  is  not  crystallized  into  arbitrary  forms.  The  poet  takes 
all  the  liberties  of  the  musician.  Time  is  the  basal  element  in 
his  verse  structure.  The  movement  is  quickened  or  retarded 
according  to  the  thought.  "  Don't  write  so  rhythmically," 
his  father  said  to  the  boy  poet;  "  break  your  lines  occasion- 
ally for  the  sake  of  variety."  Tennyson,  following  this  sug- 
gestion, declared  that  he  was  nearer  thirty  than  twenty  before 
he  was  anything  of  an  artist.  While  he  rigidly  conforms  to  the 
pentameter  line,  he  gains  variety  and  many  delicate  shades 
of  effect  by  using  almost  every  possible  mixture  of  feet. 
The  feet  not  iambic  are  called  substituted  feet.  He  himself 
tells  us  how  blank  verse  ought  to  be  made :  "  The  English 
public  think  that  blank  verse  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world 
to  write,  mere  prose  cut  up  into  five-foot  lines ;  whereas  it 
is  one  of  the  most  difficult.  In  a  blank  verse  you  can  have 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

from  three  up  to  eight  beats  [or  accents]  ;  but,  if  you  vary 
the  beats  unusually,  your  ordinary  newspaper  critic  sets  up 
a  howl.  The  varying  of  the  beats,  of  the  construction  of 
the  feet,  of  the  emphasis,  of  the  extra-metrical  syllables,  and 
of  the  pauses,  helps  to  make  the  greatness  of  blank  verse." 
In  order  to  discuss  this  verse  with  intelligence  and  appre- 
ciation, it  is  necessary  to  agree  on  a  vocabulary;  such  a 
vocabulary  is  here  suggested.  Meter  is  measure.  Verse  is 
measured  language.  A  verse  is  a  single  line  of  measured 
language.  Language  is  measured  by  the  foot. 

Vocabulary  for 

the  study  of  Ten-  A  Joot  is  a  combination  of  two  or  three  sylla- 


nyson's  blank  b\e$  usually  containing  one  accent  or  more. 
verse  . 

There  are  eight  kinds  of  feet  found  in  Tenny- 

son's blank  verse  :  the  iamb,  a  foot  of  two  syllables,  the 
second  of  which  is  accented,  indicated  in  writing  thus  (w  /)  ; 
the  trochee,  a  foot  of  two  syllables,  the  first  of  which  is 
accented,  indicated  (/^);  the  spondee,  two  syllables,  both 
accented  (//);  the  pyrrhic,  two  syllables,  neither  accented 
(ww);  the  anapest,  three  syllables,  the  last  of  which  is 
accented  (w^//);  the  dactyl,  three  syllables,  first  accented 
(/ww);  the  amphibrach,  three  syllables,  second  accented 
(w/w);  and  the  amphimacer,  three  syllables,  first  and  last 
accented  (/w/).  Saintsbury  speaks  even  of  the  tribrachs 
of  Tennyson's  idylls.  Language  to  be  measured  must  be 
rhythmic.  Perfect  rhythm  is  produced  by  a  regular  succes- 
sion of  the  same  foot  or  of  feet  that  require  equal  intervals 
of  time  for  utterance.  The  greater  swells  of  a  rhythmic 
movement  are  produced  by  a  regular  succession  of  verses  of 
equal  measure  or  of  verses  that  require  equal  intervals  of 
time  for  utterance.  Perfect  blank  verse  consists  of  lines, 
or  verses,  which  contain  five  iambic  feet  and  which  do  not 
rhyme.  (Loosely  speaking,  rhyme  is  similarity  of  sound 
occurring  usually  at  the  end  of  successive  or  alternating 


XXX11 


INTRODUCTION 


verses.)  Such  verse  containing  five  iambic  feet  is  de- 
scribed as  iambic  pentameter.  Scansion  consists  of  reading 
verse  so  as  to  reproduce  its  rhythm  by  indicating  the  natu- 
ral beats  of  the  feet,  the  varying  flow  of  the  movement,  and 
the  changing  pulsations  of  the  thought.  In  scanning  blank 
verse  do  not  try  to  make  all  the  feet  iambic ;  read  for  the 
thought  and  the  effect,  and  allow  the  accents  to  fall  where  they 
must.  Describe  every  verse  as  iambic  pentameter,  point- 
ing out  and  naming  the  substituted  feet. 

The  prevailing  verse  in  the  Idylls  of  the  King  is  iambic 
pentameter,  such  as  the  following : 


And  friend 


And  some 


slew  friend 


not  know  ing  whom    he  slew  ; 


had  vi  sions  out 


of  gold  en  youth, 

The  Passing  of  Arthur,  11.  101,  102. 


While  a  surpassing  number  of  verses  contain  five  beats 
there  is  almost  every  possible  arrangement  of  accented  and 
unaccented  syllables  with  reference  to  one  another.  Here 
and  hereafter  rhythmic  stress  and  not  syllabic  accent  is 
meant  by  the  word  "accent."  In  scanning,  the  syllables 
of  polysyllabic  words  bearing  either  primary  or  secondary 
word  or  syllabic  accents  may  have  also  rhythmic  stress. 
Do  not  mispronounce  words  in  order  to  make  the  rhythm 
regularly  iambic. 

Every  new  arrangement  of  rhythmic  accents  produces  a 
new  effect.  Note  the  following  variations  in  the  kinds  of 
feet  used  in  verse  of  five  rhythmic  beats : 


Prisoned,     and  kept  |  and  coax'd 


and  whis  tied  to  — 

Gareth  and  Lynette,  \.  14. 


This  may  be  described  as  an  iambic  pentameter  verse  with 
a  trochee  substituted  for  the  first  iamb. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxxm 


He  nev  er  spake    word  of    reproach 


to  me, 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  124. 

In  this  verse  the  third  and  fourth  feet  form  a  choriambus 
(a  trochee  followed  by  an  iamb),  and  in  the  following  verse 
a  hesitating  effect  is  produced  by  a  double  choriambus. 


First  as 


Till  the 


in  fear,     step  after  step 


she  stole 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  \.  340. 


High  God 


behold 


it  from 


beyond, 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  16. 

Described  as  an  iambic  pentameter  verse  with  a  trochee 
substituted  for  the  first,  a  spondee  for  the  second,  and  a 
pyrrhic  for  the  fourth  iambs. 


Meeker 


than  an 


y  child 


to  a 


rough  nurse, 

Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  852. 


Note  the  jarring  effect  produced  by  the  pyrrhic  followed 
by  the  spondee. 


All  night 


waste  land 


where  no 


^         / 
one  comes, 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  370. 


And  there,    that  day 


when  the 


great  light 


of  heaven 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  \.  90. 


Southward 


they  set 


their  fa  ces.     The 


birds  made 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  179. 


Rapidly  and  lightly  gliding  effects  are  produced  by  the 
introduction  of  extra  syllables.  The  five-accent  lines  may 
have  eleven  or  twelve  syllables  like  the  following. 

\J         /    W  /        W   ^  /      W  /      W  / 

In  ev  er  high  ering  ea  gle  cir  cles  up 

Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  21. 


XXXIV 


INTRODUCTION 


And  Gareth  went 


and  hov  ering  round 


her  chair 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  \.  33 


That  smells 


a  foul- 


flesh'd  ag  aric    in  the  holt, 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  729. 


For  this 


- 

an  eagle, 


a  roy 


w    / 


al  eagle,  laid 


Anon, 


the  whole 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  \.  44. 
/I    W       / 


fair  city    had  disjappear'd. 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  193. 


Then  I     so  shook 


him  in 


the  saddle,     he  said, 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  29. 


^    / 
•An  I 


could  climb 


and  lay  |  my  hand 


upon  it, 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  50. 


Here  the  last  foot  is  an  amphibrach,  and  in  the  next  verse 
the  last  foot  is  an  amphimacer,  a  foot  rarely  found  at  the 
end  of  a  line. 


At  times 


the  sum  mit  of 


the  high     city  flash'd; 

Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  189. 


Milder    than  an 


y  mother    to  a  |  sick  child, 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  853. 


This  verse  is  described  as  an  iambic  pentameter  verse 
with  a  trochee  substituted  for  the  first,  an  amphibrach  for 
the  third,  a  pyrrhic  for  the  fourth,  and  a  spondee  for  the 
fifth  iambs. 


To  weary 


her  ears    with  one 


continuous  prayer, 

Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  19. 


This  and  the  following  two  verses  have  five  accents  and 
twelve  syllables. 


INTRODUCTION 


XXXV 


\j      f    \j          y  /      \j      /  '  \j          /   \j  \j    f 

Immingled    with  Heav  en's  a  zure  wav  eringly, 

Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  914. 


/  ww 

Melody 


on  branch 


and  melo  dy  in 


mid  air. 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  180. 


This  verse,  with  its  dactyl  and  iamb  and  amphibrach  and 
spondee,  reproduces  the  melody  of  the  lark  or  of  the  thrush. 

Verses  of  three  beats  are  of  rare  occurrence,  but  those  of 
four  accents  are  found  with  greater  frequency.  Rapidity  of 
movement  is  gained  by  lessening  the  number  of  accented 
syllables ;  and  often  the  movement  is  lightened  by  the 
introduction  of  extra  syllables,  eleven  and  twelve  not  being 
uncommon. 


And  the 


long  glo  ry  of 


the  win 


ter  moon. 

The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  360. 


Burn'd  at 


his  low  est  in 


the  rolling  year, 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  91. 


Look  in 


And  let 


upon 


W      \J  \     \J 


the  battle ;     and  in    the  mist 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  104. 


the  story 


of  her  dol orous 


voyage 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  1332. 


In  verses  of  six  and  seven  accents,  the  added  beats  pro- 
duce emphasis  or  the  effect  of  harshness,  impressiveness, 
stateliness,  solemnity,  or  kindred  tones.  With  the  normal 
number  of  syllables,  the  effect  is  very  marked. 


Shrill,  chill, 


with  flakes 


of  foam. 


He,  step  ping  down 


Tkt  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  217, 


XXXVI 


INTRODUCTION 


Down  the 


long  tow  er  stairs    hesi  tating  : 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  \.  341. 

Note  the  hesitating  of  this  verse  and  the  slow  tread  of 
the  following. 


And  so 


strode  back 


Like  this 


last,  dim, 


slow  to 


weird  bat 


the  wound  ed  King. 

The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  280. 


tie  of 


the  west. 


The  Passing  of  A  rthitr,  \.  94. 


Note  the  solemn  weirdness  produced  in  this  verse  by  the 
five  successive  accents  and  the  emphasis  produced  in  the 
following  verses  by  the  distribution  of  the  accents. 


He  is 


all  fault 


Good  moth 


er  is 


w  / 

who  hath 


bad  moth 


no  fault 


at  all  : 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  \.  132. 


er  un  to  me  ! 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  1.  16. 


Needs  must 


be  less  er  like  lihood,    noble  lord, 


A  dead 


hush  fell ; 


but  when 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  365. 


the  dol orous  day 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  122. 


And  with  mine 


own  hand 


give  his 


diamond 


/    y 
to  him, 


Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  755. 


For  I,    being    simple,     thought  to  work 


His  will. 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  22. 


'Thou  hast  half 


prevail'd    against    me,'  said 


so — he  — 


Gareth  and  Lynette,  \.  30. 


/  / 

Muttering    and  mur  muring  at    his  ear,     "  Quick,  quick  ! 

The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  347. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxxvil 


The  following  verses,  which  contain  seven  accents,  are 
still  more  weighty  or  imposing. 


"  Hearest 


thou  this 


great  voice 


that  shakes 


the  world, 


The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  139. 


Ran  to  her, 


and  lo  ! 


w          / 
the  blood- 


^       / 
of  dawn 


red  light 

Lancelot  and  Elaine,  1.  1018. 


Stay,  my 


best  son ! 


ye  are  yet    more  boy 


than  man." 


Caret 'h  and  Lynette,  1.  97. 


Were  it  well 


to  o 


bey  then,     if  a  king 


^      / 

demand 


The  Passing  of  A  rthur,  1.  263. 


Thus  all  the  lights  and  shades  and  variations  of  tone  and 
voice  and  color  are  reproduced  by  the  art  of  Tennyson. 
Nature  is  made  to  teem  with  life  and  to  sparkle  with  beauty. 


REFERENCES 

The  student  will  find  the  following  books  and  papers  of  value 
in  an  appreciative  and  sympathetic  study  of  the  Idylls  of  the 
King. 

Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  :  a  Memoir  by  his  Son. 

Tennyson  :  His  Art  and  Relation  to  Modern  Life,  by  the  Rev. 
Stopford  A.  Brooke. 

Tennyson's  Idylls  of  the  King,  edited  by  William  J.  Rolfe. 
The  Poetry  of  Tennyson,  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Van  Dyke. 
The  Growth  of  the  Idylls  of  the  King,  by  Richard  Jones,  Ph.D. 
Essays  on  Tenny soil's  Idylls  of  the  King,  by  Harold  Littledale. 
Morte  Darthur,  by  Sir  Thomas  Malory. 

"The  Idylls  of  the  King,"  by  Henry  (Dean)  Alford,  Con- 
temporary Review,  January,  1870. 

"The  Meaning  of  Mr.  Tennyson's  King  Arthur,"  Contemporary 
Review,  May,  1873. 


xxxviii 


xl 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


•a   H           « 

•d 

>• 

•<  ^ 

•"    5  J  |        Co 

«       u  SP  S       «  fc.  .2 
•S  u  •£  w  8      £  g  £ 

M 
1 

2  o 

Bi 

«  *  S  •«  ^       I  2  I 
e   a  5   "<   °        °  >  !Z 

.s 

z 

8   ">  t!    ifi    5?        o  ^  "° 

« 

o 

9  *  •*  M  fl        7!    «  .3 

M 

O 

JN|«1     .ElS 

2         ?         ffl         (z,  J  05 

1 

II       41 

00 

H 

1 

« 

S 
H 

tt 

5       *                    1 

^^ 

H 
H 

1       1     3            -^ 

i     11 

J 

> 
M 

«                -s.^"! 

1  •*           v          "^                           I  k  ^  ' 

^          1  ^ 

1  c   ^      **  J 

< 

a 

^  ^             3                i  I  •!  • 

SJ             ^>      .              M     ^.§ 

o 

K 

| 

^    g                              O                                        HI  *0  1 

%    t-        •<'    v          «,  c  '5J 

H 
H 
Z 
O 

U 

f^          s           §                         Ifl 

•>   o                         ^                             &  X  > 

J-3               w           w                            ro  pn  t-i  I 

Jo       g  i;       §  „  kj 
4  co       ^           U  Q 

?                18                            "2    1  "2 

a        o 

OO                              OO                     OO                                                       OO       I      OC 

00             00                     00 

_c 
-  "o 

>• 

2> 

•    c  .£ 

0            S 

CONTEMPOR, 
BIOGRAPH 

13  5       IE       E  .    i 

>-                   °  E      "° 

*f|j   1   1      ll   1 

WQ*-°       H       Q            ^S       « 

A 

"  c  "^       E 

"  "c  ^         S  ^ 

^•5  c1     c  3 

S      3      C              «      S 

O  PJ  ^       M  W 

?                     -2            2>  *       « 

010                       - 

ao                            oo         do               oo   oo         oo 

00             00                     00 

&                                                                                  1 

<                                                                                   -g 

J3 

o 

^                                                             2 

§ 

3ANNHJ, 

g                                                          -S 

1                                                          J 
IS                                                          2 

2 

I 

§                       g 

• 

C>                                                                                                        %D                                            O 
O                                                                                                         &                                         £ 
OO                                                                                                                    OO                                              OO 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

•8  00 


xli 


c  "Sb 
§                          1  W            | 

• 

•a 

13      C                                                C    .S                       C 

•    oO 

£  "-1                            o  3            J 

"o.  g 

1  |                           1|1 

•Sec 

|2    u                                     o>  *jj                 £ 

E  2                  rt  *        > 

£  (2  ~ 

•*     "1                                               ON                      1 

C^    0 

00    00                                               00    00                     « 

*                               0?   M 

£                         1 

S                                        £ 

•^                                          t) 

1           § 

1  1           ill!  J 

**                                                .* 

•     *             S                                                           8    (2    ^0     ^           rl 

O                                                                r" 

1  'c      *3                           R  Sc          **l      ^* 

-    i> 

H^*^                                               ^^^CoH^1^ 

j 

l^>;^                             ^  1  fi  "^  4  1  ^ 

1           1 

O                                                                         ' 

§                                 /: 

:»           0                                          S 

I  1  s  1                        S  3  a  -l^s  ^  j 
B  "8  J                             .  »  K  -S  3  S  a 

;  1  «o  |                   8  1  1  ^  1  ^  1 

WO                                  PL<  hJ  iJ        Pi        £ 

-0                                                                         1 

00                                                        «     I-  00              0> 

00                                                                    '    0 

I           *£                            <S  °£  <S       "5 

E 

o         g 

•                                                                 - 

o                     . 

*S                                  *9 

•          "3           "^          "?   T3     0                                -g 

^                                    :| 

c-d£«       «  J'           -d       a 
o'u-^'oS        c  •&   a             v     •  ^ 

If  111        |||            'til" 

i         i 

is           ^      ^ 

g                 ^        -3 

n                                                               >- 

Ji               S        ° 

£  £  X  £  H      «c^(2          O^cj 

oo            (DODO          oococo                oo          oo 

00                                      OO                   OO 

1  oil    "s's 

I|||l|    : 

i      1  * 

3                            oo        -= 
uO                              "°            o 

i         i  -*•     -  i            « 

s  '  c  g  1  *§«  ^           ; 

j  .           §     2                          -a 

*  1  -|  K  1  1   .      ' 

1                                     H             T3                             .«                                              I 

!-                  2        >  ^          > 

S   S   g  .ts   |   g   S 

I      a  *       j                ^ 

2              ^     *  £       ^                ^ 

t-oo    o>       o   « 

•>»                                   O             »-»     <s                    tx.                                         o 

OO    00     00             OO    00                     1 

OO               OO     OO                      OO                                                 00 

xlii 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


§ 

H 

£ 

in 

x  > 

.3 

[-5 

S  ° 

(—  1                U                                                                      >* 

«       >                                 -9 

.S 

H« 

e         !> 

a 

0 

~          S 

* 

U 

1        -C                                          °. 

t 

S       U                               en 

u 

*?                                i-x 

« 

«             00                                                               » 

^ 

H 

4 

i 

CONTEMPORARY  LITERATU 

1       •            *  *     4  i       "~ 

3   ^        it   !!i   ^ 

r  ij          i  vi  ^11    H 

1    $1          s  .-I?  ^    ii 

ir     1*             ^J^J   Stl     *1- 
1      ll              iti^  il"*-     -si 

1    !!           J*8I  III    11 

S,            S  £                            "S,            S 

3      VO                                ^S 

OO                     00    OO                                                       OO                     CO 

OO    OO                     OO    OO 

•o 

u 

K  . 

m 

•o                                                              "S       ««  ^  7,  S 
.  .2                                                        -o       a        5  ^  •-  '« 

0  "; 

.    T3    -5 

CONTKMP 
BIOGRA 

|=g|                    |            |    |    i}|i    i 

fc~-e                                                           "3'3^-5—      JS 

III                    -i             2    °    «|S|    1 

U^?                                        W                        SPWHffijfa 

s,  s,                        *             a 

^  w^^l    ^ 

"S  *£                                   .    °S                    °£ 

OO     OO     OO     00            OO 

ji                             v        o.       4 

•o  en                              ^       2        S                          -g 

«j                                 •>»        2        §                         ° 

z 

||          |                *      1       fe                         i     $ 

o 

> 

ww                         sQ"E<                      si"* 

s                    • 

z 

0^                     ^§                        ^S                                                                   [TI 

u 

z 

H 

^2          IJ»               vw!S"«                       -o^ 

s.a            5>-oOs                   g-s 

s>            ^ 

If1  1     I^l1!       \k 

•* 

GO                              00                                 OO                                                                                         OO 

vD 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


xliii 


a 

c 

a              g. 

1 

;£             w 

B 

c              S 

1 

|             X 

o  i 

(V                   o 

6    a 

0                   S 

0                    0 

^  £ 

c             ^c 

S           .£• 
fa         < 

1  ° 

o              •* 

^ 

00                     00 

? 

i 

§ 

*Q 

CQ 

S             N» 

jj 

^           S 

i 

i       "1 

<s 

^ 

*^ 

.R 

^       c§    • 

>£ 

a         c"  *> 

.5 

w              ^     Kj 

c 

C            C       . 

0 

I     t§ 

m 

<h       M 

o                                                                                        oo         oo 

00                                                                                                                                        GO              00 

TJ 

•^                                                     ^ 

T3                                tJ 

•     !J                                -Ji 

-d  'S     * 
*o              <u  ^_  ^          .        *o  .2 

'      rl-i      ^                  T3                                          ^ 
<1J        ^      'S        ^      -2-      rrt                              ^ 

*5                 "S  ^        -2i        ^  W 

•3  "3   e  —  "°   u            •" 

S      <U     '«               **                fl      fci 
(O                       ^i     HH      W              ^J                nJ      t 
CO                            u     HH       |Tj               --H                  >,      O 

u   c   °  "3   a!  "3            ^ 

f!  if  II     | 

rt        S  ^  <     S     5  o 

c3  P  w  j  ^  ffi         ^ 

oo                   O     "i     PO           *n          OO     0 

\O                            t^»      is,      t>.                fs,                ts.    OO 

OO                       OO     OO     OO              OO              GO     OO 

OO     OO       1         I      CO     OO                        00 
OO     OO                 I      00     00                        OO 

Jj 

[              1      ^ 

5 

1                   g 

h                                       5  p 
S      ^                              .? 
eg                     •           ^  • 

^  "^      *       *^          < 

h          1^1  |     i 

\ 

\ 

3 

-  •  2              s'    •§  ' 

•0     v    *•                                 S    ^           J 

51                       !>  t«l  >  ^  « 

3  %                       •|3§MS^*.srt 
3    S                              cs!55x8r?5lfi 

»             00                                      00    00             00 

00    OO             OO             00              3s 
OO     00              OO              OO              OO 

KNIGHTS    OF   THE   ROUND   TABLE 

"  BEDIVERE —  «  First  made  and  latest  left  of  all  the  knights'; 

LANCELOT —  '  His  warrior  whom  he  loved  and  honored  most ' ; 

GAWAIN  —  '  A  reckless  and  irreverent  knight  was  he ' ; 

MODRED —  '  Struck  for  the  throne,  and  striking  found  his  doom '; 

GARETH —  '  Underwent  the  sooty  yoke  of  kitchen  vassalage'; 

KAY  —  '  No  mellow  master  of  the  meats  and  drinks ' ; 

GERAINT —  'A  tributary  prince  of  Devon,'  married  to  Enid  ; 

BALIN —  'The  Savage';  and  Balan,  his  brother; 

PERCIVALE  —  '  Whom  Arthur  and  his  knighthood  called  The  Pure ' ; 

GALAHAD  —  '  But  I,  Sir  Arthur,  saw  the  Holy  Grail ' ; 

BORS  —  '  A  square-set  man  and  honest,'  of  Lancelot's  kin ; 

PELLEAS  —  '  Of  the  Isles ' ;  enamored  of  Ettarre ; 

TRISTRAM —  'Of  the  Woods';  slain  by  Mark,  Isolt's  husband." 

Rowe. 


xliv 


IDYLLS    OF   THE    KING 


GARETH   AND    LYNETTE 

ti  x.  4     u  ^.   \    o  —    l          —    1"-^| 
The  last  tall  son  of  Lot  land  Bellicent; 

And  tallest,  Garefth,  in  a  showerful  spring 

Stared  at  the  spate.     A  slender-shafted  pine 

Lost  footing,  fell,  andiso  was  whirl'd  away. 

"  Ifow  heiwent  down,?  said  Gareth,  "as/ a  false  knight       5 

Or  evil  king  before  my  lance,  if  lance 

Were  mine  to  use  —  O  senseless  cataract, 

Bearing  all  down  in  thy  precipitancy  — 

And  yet  thou  art  but  swollen  with  cold  snows 

And  mine  is  living  blood  :  thou  dost  His  will,  10 

The  Maker's,  and  not  knowest,  and  I  that  know, 

Have  strength  and  wit,  in  my  good  mother's  hall 

Linger  with  vacillating  obedience, 

Prison'd,  and  kept  and  coax'd  and  whistled  to  — 

Since  the  good  mother  holds  me  still  a  child!  15 

Good  mother  is  bad  mother  unto  me  ! 

A  worse  were  better ;   yet  no  worse  would  I. 

Heaven  yield  her  for  it,  but  in  me  put  force 

To  weary  her  ears  with  one  continuous  prayer, 

Until  she  let  me  fly  discaged  to  sweep  20 

In  ever-highering  eagle-circles  up 

To  the  great  Sun  of  Glory,  and  thence  swoop 

Down  upon  all  things  base,  and  dash  them  dead, 

A  knight  of  Arthur,  working  out  his  will, 


2  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

To  cleanse  the  world.     Why,  Gawain,  when  he  came  25 

With  Modred  hither  in  the  summer-time, 

Ask'd  me  to  tilt  with  him,  the  proven  knight. 

Modred  for  want  of  worthier  was  the  judge. 

Then  I  so  shook  him  in  the  saddle,  he  said, 

'  Thou  hast  half  prevail'd  against  me,'  said  so  —  he  —         30 

Tho'  Modred  biting  his  thin  lips  was  mute, 

For  he  is  alway  sullen  :  what  care  I  ?  " 

And  Gareth  went,  and  hovering  round  her  chair 
Ask'd,  "  Mother,  tho'  ye  count  me  still  the  child, 
Sweet  mother,  do  ye  love  the  child  ?  "     She  laughed,  35 

"  Thou  art  but  a  wild-goose  to  question  it." 
"  Then,  mother,  an  ye  love  the  child,"  he  said, 
"  Being  a  goose  and  rather  tame  than  wild, 
Hear  the  child's  story."     "Yea,  my  well-beloved, 

An  'twere  but  of  the  goose  and  golden  eggs."  40 

• 

And  Gareth  answer'd  her  with  kindling  eyes : 
"  Nay,  nay,  good  mother,  but  this  egg  of  mine 
Was  finer  gold  than  any  goose  can  lay ; 
For  this  an  eagle,  a  royal  eagle,  laid 

Almost  beyond  eye-reach,  on  such  a  palm  45 

As  glitters  gilded  in  thy  Book  of  Hours. 
And  there  was  ever  haunting  round  the  palm 
A  lusty  youth,  but  poor,  who  often  saw 
The  splendor  sparkling  from  aloft,  and  thought, 
{ An  I  could  climb  and  lay  my  hand  upon  it,  50 

Then  were  I  wealthier  than  a  leash  of  kings.' 
But  ever  when  he  reach'd  a  hand  to  climb, 
One  that  had  loved  him  from  his  childhood  caught 
And  stay'd  him,  '  Climb  not  lest  thou  break  thy  neck, 
I  charge  thee  by  my  love,'  and  so  the  boy,  55 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  3 

V 

Sweet  mother,  neither  clomb  nor  brake  his  neck, 
But  brake  his  very  heart  in  pining  for  it, 
And  past  away." 

To  whom  the  mother  said, 

"  True  love,  sweet  son,  had  risk'd  himself  and  climb'd, 
And  handed  down  the  golden  treasure  to  him."  60 

And  Gareth  answer'd  her  with  kindling  eyes  : 
"  Gold  ?  said  I  gold  ?  —  ay  then,  why  he,  or  she, 
Or  whosoe'er  it  was,  or  half  the  world 
Had  ventured  —  had  the  thing  I  spake  of  been 
Mere  gold  —  but  this  was  all  of  that  true  steel  65 

Whereof  they  forged  the  brand  Excalibur, 
And  lightnings  play'd  about  it  in  the  storm, 
And  all  the  little  fowl  were  flurried  at  it, 
And  there  were  cries  and  clashings  in  the  nest, 
That  sent  him  from  his  senses  :  let  me  go."  70 

Then  Bellicent  bemoan'd  herself  and  said : 
"  Hast  thou  no  pity  upon  my  loneliness  ? 
Lo,  where  thy  father  Lot  beside  the  hearth 
Lies  like  a  log,  and  all  but  smoulder'd  out! 
For  ever  since  when  traitor  to  the  King  75 

He  fought  against  him  in  the  barons'  war, 
And  Arthur  gave  him  back  his  territory, 
His  age  hath  slowly  droopt,  and  now  lies  there 
A  yet-warm  corpse,  and  yet  unburiable, 

No  more ;  nor  sees,  nor  hears,  nor  speaks,  nor  knows.         80 
And  both  thy  brethren  are  in  Arthur's  hall, 
Albeit  neither  loved  with  that  full  love 
I  feel  for  thee,  nor  worthy  such  a  love. 
Stay  therefore  thou ;  red  berries  charm  the  bird, 


4  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

And  thee,  mine  innocent,  the  jousts,  the  wars,  85 

Who  never  knewest  finger-ache,  nor  pang 

Of  wrench'd  or  broken  limb  —  an  often  chance 

In  those  brain-stunning  shocks,  and  tourney-falls, 

Frights  to  my  heart ;  but  stay  :  follow  the  deer 

By  these  tall  firs  and  our  fast-falling  burns ;  90 

So  make  thy  manhood  mightier  day  by  day ; 

Sweet  is  the  chase :   and  I  will  seek  thee  out 

Some  comfortable  bride  and  fair,  to  grace 

Thy  climbing  life,  and  cherish  my  prone  year, 

Till  falling  into  Lot's  forgetfulness  95 

I  know  not  thee,  myself,  nor  anything. 

Stay,  my  best  son  I  ye  are  yet  more  boy  than  man." 

Then  Gareth :   "  An  ye  hold  me  yet  for  child, 
Hear  yet  once  more  the  story  of  the  child. 
For,  mother,  there  was  once  a  king,  like  ours.  100 

The  prince  his  heir,  when  tall  and  marriageable, 
Ask'd  for  a  bride ;  and  thereupon  the  king 
Set  two  before  him.     One  was  fair,  strong,  arm'd  — 
But  to  be  won  by  force  —  and  many  men 
Desired  her ;  one,  good  lack,  no  man  desired.  105 

And  these  were  the  conditions  of  the  king : 
That  save  he  won  the  first  by  force,  he  needs 
Must  wed  that  other,  whom  no  man  desired, 
A  red-faced  bride  who  knew  herself  so  vile 
That  evermore  she  long'd  to  hide  herself,  1I0 

Nor  fronted  man  or  woman,  eye  to  eye  — 
Yea  —  some  she  cleaved  to,  but  they  died  of  her. 
And  one  —  they  call'd  her  Fame  ;   and  one  —  O  mother. 
How  can  ye  keep  me  tether'd  to  you  ?  —  Shame. 
Man  am  I  grown,  a  man's  work  must  I  do.  I15 

Follow  the  deer  ?  follow  the  Christ,  the  King, 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  5 

Live  pure,  speak  true,  right  wrong,  follow  the  King  — 
Else,  wherefore  born  ?  " 

To  whom  the  mother  said: 

"  Sweet  son,  for  there  be  many  who  deem  him  not, 
Or  will  not  deem  him,  wholly  proven  King  —  120 

Albeit  in  mine  own  heart  I  knew  him  King 
When  I  was  frequent  with  him  in  my  youth, 
And  heard  him  kingly  speak,  and  doubted  him 
No  more  than  he,  himself  ;  but  felt  him  mine, 
Of  closest  kin  to  me  :  yet  —  wilt  thou  leave  125 

Thine  easeful  biding  here,  and  risk  thine  all, 
Life,  limbs,  for  one  that  is  not  proven  King  ? 
Stay,  till  the  cloud  that  settles  round  his  birth 
Hath  lifted  but  a  little.     Stay,  sweet  son." 

And  Gareth  answer'd  quickly  :  "Not  an  hour,  130 

So  that  ye  yield  me  —  I  will  walk  thro'  fire, 
Mother,  to  gain  it  —  your  full  leave  to  go. 
Not  proven,  who  swept  the  dust  of  ruin'd  Rome 
From  off  the  threshold  of  the  realm,  and  crush'd 
The  idolaters,  and  made  the  people  free  ?  135 

Who  should  be  king  save  him  who  makes  us  free  ^' 


So  when  the  Queen,  who  long  had  sought  in  vain 
To  break  him  from  the  intent  to  which  he  grew, 
Found  her  son's  will  unwaveringly  one, 
She  answer'd  craftily  :   "  Will  ye  walk  thro'  fire  ?  140 

Who  walks  thro'  fire  will  hardly  heed  the  smoke. 
Ay,  go  then,  an  ye  must  :  only  one  proof, 
Before  thou  ask  the  King  to  make  thee  knight, 
Of  thine  obedience  and  thy  love  to  me, 
Thy  mother,  —  I  demand." 


6  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

And  Gareth  cried :  I45 

"A  hard  one,  or  a  hundred,  so  I  go. 
Nay  —  quick !  the  proof  to  prove  me  to  the  quick !  " 

But  slowly  spake  the  mother  looking  at  him : 
"  Prince,  thou  shalt  go  disguised  to  Arthur's  hall, 
And  hire  thyself  to  serve  for  meats  and  drinks  150 

Among  the  scullions  and  the  kitchen-knaves, 
And  those  that  hand  the  dish  across  the  bar. 
Nor  shalt  thou  tell  thy  name  to  any  one. 
And  thou  shalt  serve  a  twelvemonth  and  a  day." 

For  so  the  Queen  believed  that  when  her  son  155 

Beheld  his  only  way  to  glory  lead 
Low  down  thro'  villain  kitchen-vassalage, 
Her  own  true  Gareth  was  too  princely-proud 
To  pass  thereby ;  so  should  he  rest  with  her, 
Closed  in  her  castle  from  the  sound  of  arms.  160 

Silent  awhile  was  Gareth,  then  replied : 
"  The  thrall  in  person  may  be  free  in  soul, 
And  I  shall  see  the  jousts.     Thy  son  am  I, 
And,  since  thou  art  my  mother,  must  obey. 
I  therefore  yield  me  freely  to  thy  will ;  165 

For  hence  will  I,  disguised,  and  hire  myself 
To  serve  with  scullions  and  with  kitchen-knaves ; 
Nor  tell  my  name  to  any  —  no,  not  the  King." 

Gareth  awhile  linger'd.     The  mother's  eye 
Full  of  the  wistful  fear  that  he  would  go,  170 

And  turning  toward  him  wheresoe'er  he  turn'd, 
Perplext  his  outward  purpose,  till  an  hour 
When,  waken'd  by  the  wind  which  with  full  voice 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  7 

Swept  bellowing  thro'  the  darkness  on  to  dawn, 

He  rose,  and  out  of  slumber  calling  two  175 

That  still  had  tended  on  him  from  his  birth, 

Before  the  wakeful  mother  heard  him,  went. 

The  three  were  clad  like  tillers  of  the  soil. 
Southward  they  set  their  faces.     The  birds  made 
Melody  on  branch  and  melody  in  mid  air.  180 

The  damp  hill-slopes  were  quicken'd  into  green, 
And  the  live  green  had  kindled  into  flowers, 
For  it  was  past  the  time  of  Easter-day. 

So,  when  their  feet  were  planted  on  the  plain 
That  broaden'd  toward  the  base  of  Camelot,  185 

Far  off  they  saw  the  silver-misty  morn 
Rolling  her  smoke  about  the  royal  mount, 
That  rose  between  the  forest  and  the  field. 
At  times  the  summit  of  the  high  city  flash'd; 
At  times  the  spires  and  turrets  half-way  down  190 

Prick'd  thro'  the  mist ;  at  times  the  great  gate  shone 
Only,  that  open'd  on  the  field  below: 
Anon,  the  whole  fair  city  had  disappear'd. 

Then  those  who  went  with  Gareth  were  amazed, 
One  crying,  "Let  us  go  no  further,  lord:  195 

Here  is  a  city  of  enchanters,  built 
By  fairy  kings."     The  second  echo'd  him, 
"Lord,  we  have  heard  from  our  wise  man  at  home 
To  northward,  that  this  king  is  not  the  King, 
But  only  changeling  out  of  Fairyland,  200 

Who  drave  the  heathen  hence  by  sorcery 
And  Merlin's  glamour."     Then  the  first  again, 
"Lord,  there  is  no  such  city  anywhere, 
But  all  a  vision." 


8  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Gareth  answer'd  them 

With  laughter,  swearing  he  had  glamour  enow  205 

In  his  own  blood,  his  princedom,  youth,  and  hopes, 
To  plunge  old  Merlin  in  the  Arabian  sea; 
So  push'd  them  all  unwilling  toward  the  gate. 
And  there  was  no  gate  like  it  under  heaven. 
For  barefoot  on  the  keystone,  which  was  lined  210 

And  rippled  like  an  ever-fleeting  wave, 
The  Lady  of  the  Lake  stood :  all  her  dress 
Wept  from  her  sides  as  water  flowing  away ; 
But  like  the  cross  her  great  and  goodly  arms 
Stretch'd  under  all  the  cornice  and  upheld:  215 

And  drops  of  water  fell  from  either  hand ; 
And  down  from  one  a  sword  was  hung,  from  one 
A  censer,  either  worn  with  wind  and  storm ; 
And  o'er  her  breast  floated  the  sacred  fish ; 
And  in  the  space  to  left  of  her,  and  right,  220 

Were  Arthur's  wars  in  weird  devices  done, 
New  things  and  old  co-twisted,  as  if  Time 
Were  nothing,  so  inveterately  that  men 
Were  giddy  gazing  there  ;  and  over  all 

High  on  the  top  were  those  three  queens,  the  friends       225 
Of  Arthur,  who  should  help  him  at  his  need. 

Then  those  with  Gareth  for  so  long  a  space 
Stared  at  the  figures  that  at  last  it  seem'd 
The  dragon-boughts  and  elvish  emblemings 
Began  to  move,  seethe,  twine,  and  curl :  they  call'd          230 
To  Gareth,  "Lord,  the  gateway  is  alive." 

And  Gareth  likewise  on  them  fixt  his  eyes 
So  long  that  even  to  him  they  seem'd  to  move. 
Out  of  the  city  a  blast  of  music  peal'd. 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  9 

Back  from  the  gate  started  the  three,  to  whom  235 

From  out  thereunder  came  an  ancient  man 
Long-bearded,  saying,  "Who  be  ye,  my  sons?" 

Then  Gareth:  "We  be  tillers  of  the  soil, 
Who  leaving  share  in  furrow  come  to  see 
The  glories  of  our  King:    but  these,  my  men, —  240 

Your  city  moved  so  weirdly  in  the  mist — 
Doubt  if  the  King  be  king  at  all,  or  come 
From  Fairyland;  and  whether  this  be  built 
By  magic,  and  by  fairy  kings  and  queens ; 
Or  wnether  there  be  any  city  at  all,  245 

Or  all  a  vision  :  and  this  music  now 
Hath  scared  them  both,  but  tell  thou  these  the  truth." 

Then  that  old  Seer  made  answer,  playing  on  him 
And  saying:   "Son,  I  have  seen  the  good  ship  sail 
Keel  upward  and  mast  downward,  in  the  heavens,  250 

And  solid  turrets  topsy-turvy  in  air : 
And  here  is  truth ;  but  an  it  please  thee  not, 
Take  thou  the  truth  as  thou  hast  told  it  me 
For  truly,  as  thou  sayest,  a  fairy  king 

And  fairy  queens  have  built  the  city,  son  ;  255 

They  came  from  out  a  sacred  mountain-cleft 
Toward  the  sunrise,  each  with  harp  in  hand, 
And  built  it  to  the  music  of  their  harps. 
And,  as  thou  sayest,  it  is  enchanted,  son, 
For  there  is  nothing  in  it  as  it  seems  260 

Saving  the  King ;  tho'  some  there  be  that  hold 
The  King  a  shadow,  and  the  city  real ; 
Yet  take  thou  heed  of  him,  for,  so  thou  pass 
Beneath  this  archway,  then  wilt  thou  become 
A  thrall  to  his  enchantments,  for  the  King  265 


10  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Will  bind  thee  by  such  vows  as  is  a  shame 

A  man  should  not  be  bound  by,  yet  the  which 

No  man  can  keep ;  but,  so  thou  dread  to  swear, 

Pass  not  beneath  this  gateway,  but  abide 

Without,  among  the  cattle  of  the  field.  270 

For  an  ye  heard  a  music,  like  enow 

They  are  building  still,  seeing  the  city  is  built 

To  music,  therefore  never  built  at  all, 

And  therefore  built  for  ever." 

Gareth  spake 

Anger'd :  "Old  master,  reverence  thine  own  beard  275 

That  looks  as  white  as  utter  truth,  and  seems 
Wellnigh  as  long  as  thou  art  statured  tall ! 
Why  mockest  thou  the  stranger  that  hath  been 
To  thee  fair-spoken  ? " 

But  the  Seer  replied  : 

"Know  ye  not  then  the  Riddling  of  the  Bards:  280 

'Confusion,  and  illusion,  and  relation, 
Elusion,  and  occasion,  and  evasion'? 
I  mock  thee  not  but  as  thou  mockest  me, 
And  all  that  see  thee,  for  thou  art  not  who      ^ 
Thou  seemest,  but  I  know  thee  who  thou  art.  285 

And  now  thou  goest  up  to  mock  the  King, 
Who  cannot  brook  the  shadow  of  any  lie." 

Unmockingly  the  mocker  ending  here, 
Turn'd  to  the  right,  and  past  along  the  plain ; 
Whom  Gareth  looking  after  said  :   "My  men,  290 

Our  one  white  lie  sits  like  a  little  ghost 
Here  on  the  threshold  of  our  enterprise. 
Let  love  be  blamed  for  it,  not  she,  nor  I : 
Well,  we  will  make  amends." 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  II 

With  all  good  cheer 

He  spake  and  laugh'd,  then  enter'd  with  his  twain  295 

Camelot,  a  city  of  shadowy  palaces 
And  stately,  rich  in  emblem  and  the  work 
Of  ancient  kings  who  did  their  days  in  stone  ; 
Which  Merlin's  hand,  the  Mage  at  Arthur's  court, 
Knowing  all  arts,  had  touch'd,  and  everywhere,  300 

At  Arthur's  ordinance,  tipt  with  lessening  peak 
And  pinnacle,  and  had  made  it  spire  to  heaven. 
And  ever  and  anon  a  knight  would  pass 
Outward,  or  inward  to  the  hall :  his  arms 
Clash'd  ;  and  the  sound  was  good  to  Gareth's  ear.  305 

And  out  of  bower  and  casement  shyly  glanced 
Eyes  of  pure  women,  wholesome  stars  of  love ; 
And  all  about  a  healthful  people  stept 
As  in  the  presence  of  a  gracious  king.    ^^^ 

<7 

Then  into  hall  Gareth  ascending  heard  310 

A  voice,  the  voice  of  Arthur,  and  beheld 
Far  over  heads  in  that  long-vaulted  hall 
The  splendor  of  the  presence  of  the  King 
Throned,  and  delivering  doom  —  and  look'd  no  more  — 
But  felt  his  young  heart  hammering  in  his  ears,  315 

And  thought,  "  For  this  half-shadow  of  a  lie 
The  truthful  King  will  doom  me  when  I  speak." 
Yet  pressing  on,  tho'  all  in  fear  to  find 
Sir  Gawain  or  Sir  Modred,  saw  nor  one 
Nor  other,  but  in  all  the  listening  eyes  320 

Of  those  tall  knights  that  ranged  about  the  throne 
Clear  honor  shining  like  the  dewy  star 
Of  dawn,  and  faith  in  their  great  King,  with  pure 
Affection,  and  the  light  of  victory, 
And  glory  gain'd,  and  evermore  to  gain.  325 


12  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Then  came  a  widow  crying  to  the  King: 
"A  boon,  Sir  King!     Thy  father,  Uther,  reft 
From  my  dead  lord  a  field  with  violence ; 
For  howsoe'er  at  first  he  proffer'd  gold, 

Yet,  for  the  field  was  pleasant  in  our  eyes,  330 

We  yielded  not ;  and  then  he  reft  us  of  it 
Perforce  and  left  us  neither  gold  nor  field." 

Said  Arthur,  "Whether  would  ye?  gold  or  field?  " 
To  whom  the  woman  weeping,  "Nay,  my  lord, 
The  field  was  pleasant  in  my  husband's  eye."  335 

And  Arthur  :  "  Have  thy  pleasant  field  again, 
And  thrice  the  gold  for  Uther's  use  thereof, 
According  to  the  years.     No  boon  is  here, 
But  justice,  so  thy  say  be  proven  true. 

Accursed,  who  from  the  wrongs  his  father  did  340 

Would  shape  himself  a  right ! " 

And  while  she  past, 

Came  yet  another  widow  crying  to  him  : 
"A  boon,  Sir  King  !     Thine  enemy,  King,  am  I. 
With  thine  own  hand  thou  slewest  my  dear  lord, 
A  knight  of  Uther  in  the  barons'  war,  345 

When  Lot  and  many  another  rose  and  fought 
Against  thee,  saying  thou  wert  basely  born. 
I  held  with  these,  and  loathe  to  ask  thee  aught. 
Yet  lo  !  my  husband's  brother  had  my  son 
Thrall'd  in  his  castle,  and  hath  starved  him  dead,  350 

And  standeth  seized  of  that  inheritance 
Which  thou  that  slewest  the  sire  hast  left  the  son. 
So,  tho'  I  scarce  can  ask  it  thee  for  hate, 
Grant  me  some  knight  to  do  the  battle  for  me, 
Kill  the  foul  thief,  and  wreak  me  for  my  son."  355 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  13 

Then  strode  a  good  knight  forward,  crying  to  him, 
"A  boon,  Sir  King!     I  am  her  kinsman,  I. 
Give  me  to  right  her  wrong,  and  slay  the  man." 

Then  came  Sir  Kay,  the  seneschal,  and  cried, 
"A  boon,  Sir  King!  even  that  thou  grant  her  none,          360 
This  railer,  that  hath  mock'd  thee  in  full  hall  — 
None ;  or  the  wholesome  boon  of  gyve  and  gag." 

But  Arthur:  "We  sit  King,  to  help  the  wrong'd 
Thro'  all  our  realm.     The  woman  loves  her  lord. 
Peace  to  thee,  woman,  with  thy  loves  and  hates !  365 

The  kings  of  old  had  doom'd  thee  to  the  flames ; 
Aurelius  Emrys  would  have  scourged  thee  dead, 
And  Uther  slit  thy  tongue :  but  get  thee  hence — 
Lest  that  rough  humor  of  the  kings  of  old 
Return  upon  me !     Thou  that  art  her  kin,  370 

Go  likewise ;  lay  him  low  and  slay  him  not, 
But  bring  him  here,  that  I  may  judge  the  right, 
According  to  the  justice  of  the  King : 
Then,  be  he  guilty,  by  that  deathless  King 
Who  lived  and  died  for  men,  the  man  shall  die."  375 

Then  came  in  hall  the  messenger  of  Mark, 
A  name  of  evil  savor  in  the  land, 
The  Cornish  king.     In  either  hand  he  bore 
What  dazzled  all,  and  shone  far-off  as  shines 
A  field  of  charlock  in  the  sudden  sun  380 

Between  two  showers,  a  cloth  of  palest  gold, 
Which  down  he  laid  before  the  throne,  and  knelt, 
Delivering  that  his  lord,  the  vassal  king, 
Was  even  upon  his  way  to  Camelot ; 
For  having  heard  that  Arthur  of  his  grace  385 


14  IDYLLS    OF   THE   KING 

Had  made  his  goodly  cousin  Tristram  knight, 

And,  for  himself  was  of  the  greater  state, 

Being  a  king,  he  trusted  his  liege-lord 

Would  yield  him  this  large  honor  all  the  more ; 

So  pray'd  him  well  to  accept  this  cloth  of  gold,  390 

In  token  of  true  heart  and  fealty. 

Then  Arthur  cried  to  rend  the  cloth,  to  rend 
In  pieces,  and  so  cast  it  on  the  hearth. 
An  oak-tree  smoulder'd  there.     "  The  goodly  knight ! 
What !  shall  the  shield  of  Mark  stand  among  these?  "       395 
For,  midway  down  the  side  of  that  long  hall, 
A  stately  pile,  —  whereof  along  the  front, 
Some  blazon'd,  some  but  carven,  and  some  blank, 
There  ran  a  treble  range  of  stony  shields,  — 
Rose,  and  high-arching  over-brow'd  the  hearth.  400 

And  under  every  shield  a  knight  was  named. 
For  this  was  Arthur's  custom  in  his  hall : 
When  some  good  knight  had  done  one  noble  deed, 
His  arms  were  carven  only ;  but  if  twain, 
His  arms  were  blazon'd  also ;  but  if  none,  405 

The  shield  was  blank  and  bare,  without  a  sign 
Saving  the  name  beneath  :  and  Gareth  saw 
The  shield  of  Gawain  blazon'd  rich  and  bright, 
And  Modred's  blank  as  death ;  and  Arthur  cried 
To  rend  the  cloth  and  cast  it  on  the  hearth.  410 

"  More  like  are  we  to  reave  him  of  his  crown 
Than  make  him  knight  because  men  call  him  king. 
The  kings  we  found,  ye  know  we  stay'd  their  hands 
From  war  among  themselves,  but  left  them  kings  ; 
Of  whom  were  any  Bounteous,  merciful,  415 

Truth-speaking,  brave,  good  livers,  them  we  enroll'd 


GARETH   AND    LYNETTE  15 

Among  us,  and  they  sit  within  our  hall. 

But  Mark  hath  tarnish'd  the  great  name  of  king, 

As  Mark  would  sully  the  low  state  of  churl; 

And,  seeing  he  hath  sent  us  cloth  of  gold,  420 

Return,  and  meet,  and  hold  him  from  our  eyes, 

Lest  we  should  lap  him  up  in  cloth  of  lead, 

Silenced  for  ever  —  craven  —  a  man  of  plots, 

Craft,  poisonous  counsels,  wayside  ambushings  — 

No  fault  of  thine  :  let  Kay  the  seneschal  425 

Look  to  thy  wants,  and  send  thee  satisfied  — 

Accursed,  who  strikes  nor  lets  the  hand  be  seen  !  " 

And  many  another  suppliant  crying  came 
With  noise  of  ravage  wrought  by  beast  and  man, 
And  evermore  a  knight  would  ride  away.  430 

Last,  Gareth  leaning  both  hands  heavily 
Down  on  the  shoulders  of  the  twain,  his  men, 
Approach'd  between  them  toward  the  King,  and  ask'd, 
"A  boon,  Sir  King,"-  — his  voice  was  all  ashamed, — 
"  For  see  ye  not  how  weak  and  hunger-worn  435 

I  seem  —  leaning  on  these  ?  grant  me  to  serve 
For  meat  and  drink  among  thy  kitchen-knaves 
A  twelvemonth  and  a  day,  nor  seek  my  name. 
Hereafter  I  will  fight." 

To  him  the  King : 

"  A  goodly  youth  and  worth  a  goodlier  boon !  440 

But  so  thou  wilt  no  goodlier,  then  must  Kay, 
The  master  of  the  meats  and  drinks,  be  thine." 

He  rose  and  past ;  then  Kay,  a  man  of  mien 
Wan-sallow  as  the  plant  that  feels  itself 
Root-bitten  by  white  lichen : 


16  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

"Lo  ye  now  !  445 

This  fellow  hath  broken  from  some  abbey,  where, 
God  wot,  he  had  not  beef  and  brewis  enow, 
However  that  might  chance  !  but  an  he  work, 
Like  any  pigeon  will  I  cram  his  crop, 
And  sleeker  shall  he  shine  than  any  hog."  450 

Then  Lancelot  standing  near  :  "  Sir  Seneschal, 
Sleuth-hound  thou  knowest,  and  gray,  and  all  the  hounds ; 
A  horse  thou  knowest,  a  man  thou  dost  not  know : 
Broad  brows  and  fair,  a  fluent  hair  and  fine, 
High  nose,  a  nostril  large  and  fine,  and  hands,  455 

Large,  fair,  and  fine  !  —  Some  young  lad's  mystery  — 
But,  or  from  sheepcot  or  king's  hall,  the  boy 
Is  noble-natured.     Treat  him  with  all  grace, 
Lest  he  should  come  to  shame  thy  judging  of  him." 

Then  Kay:   "  What  murmurest  thou  of  mystery  ?  460 

Think  ye  this  fellow  will  poison  the  King's  dish  ? 
Nay,  for  he  spake  too  fool-like  :  mystery  ! 
Tut,  an  the  lad  were  noble,  he  had  ask'd 
For  horse  and  armor  :  fair  and  fine,  forsooth ! 
Sir  Fine-face,  Sir  Fair-hands  ?  but  see  thou  to  it  465 

That  thine  own  fineness,  Lancelot,  some  fine  day 
Undo  thee  not  —  and  leave  my  man  to  me." 

So  Gareth  all  for  glory  underwent 
The  sooty  yoke  of  kitchen-vassalage, 

Ate  with  young  lads  his  portion  by  the  door,  470 

And  couch'd  at  night  with  grimy  kitchen-knaves. 
And  Lancelot  ever  spake  him  pleasantly, 
But  Kay  the  seneschal,  who  loved  him  not, 
Would  hustle  and  harry  him,  and  labor  him 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  17 

Beyond  his  comrade  of  the  hearth,  and  set  475 

To  turn  the  broach,  draw  water,  or  hew  wood, 

Or  grosser  tasks ;  and  Gareth  bow'd  himself 

With  all  obedience  to  the  King,  and  wrought 

All  kind  of  service  with  a  noble  ease 

That  graced  the  lowliest  act  in  doing  it,  480 

And  when  the  thralls  had  talk  among  themselves, 

And  one  would  praise  the  love  that  linkt  the  King 

And  Lancelot  —  how  the  King  had  saved  his  life 

In  battle  twice,  and  Lancelot  once  the  King's  — 

For  Lancelot  was  the  first  in  tournament,  485 

But  Arthur  mightiest  on  the  battle-field  — 

Gareth  was  glad.     Or  if  some  other  told 

How  once  the  wandering  forester  at  dawn, 

Far  over  the  blue  tarns  and  hazy  seas, 

On  Caer-Eryri's  highest  found  the  King,  49o 

A  naked  babe,  of  whom  the  Prophet  spake, 

"  He  passes  to  the  Isle  Avilion, 

He  passes  and  is  heal'd  and  cannot  die  " — 

Gareth  was  glad.     But  if  their  talk  were  foul, 

Then  would  he  whistle  rapid  as  any  lark,  49^ 

Or  carol  some  old  roundelay,  and  so  loud 

That  first  they  mock'd,  but,  after,  reverenced  him. 

Or  Gareth,  telling  some  prodigious  tale 

Of  knights  who  sliced  a  red  life-bubbling  way 

Thro'  twenty  folds  of  twisted  dragon,  held  500 

All  in  a  gap-mouth'd  circle  his  good  mates 

Lying  or  sitting  round  him,  idle  hands, 

Charm'd ;  till  Sir  Kay,  the  seneschal,  would  come 

Blustering  upon  them,  like  a  sudden  wind 

Among  dead  leaves,  and  drive  them  all  apart.  505 

Or  when  the  thralls  had  sport  among  themselves, 

So  there  were  any  trial  of  mastery, 


18  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

He,  by  two  yards  in  casting  bar  or  stone, 

Was  counted  best ;  and  if  there  chanced  a  joust, 

So  that  Sir  Kay  nodded  him  leave  to  go,  510 

Would  hurry  thither,  and  when  he  saw  the  knights 

Clash  like  the  coming  and  retiring  wave, 

And  the  spear  spring,  and  good  horse  reel,  the  boy 

Was  half  beyond  himself  for  ecstasy. 

So  for  a  month  he  wrought  among  the  thralls ;  515 

But  in  the  weeks  that  follow'd,  the  good  Queen, 
Repentant  of  the  word  she  made  him  swear, 
And  saddening  in  her  childless  castle,  sent, 
Between  the  in-crescent  and  de-crescent  moon, 
Arms  for  her  son,  and  loosed  him  from  his  vow.  520 

This,  Gareth  hearing  from  a  squire  of  Lot 
With  whom  he  used  to  play  at  tourney  once, 
When  both  were  children,  and  in  lonely  haunts 
Would  scratch  a  ragged  oval  on  the  sand, 
And  each  at  either  dash  from  either  end  —  525 

Shame  never  made  girl  redder  than  Gareth  joy. 
He  laugh'd ;  he  sprang.     "  Out  of  the  smoke,  at  once 
I  leap  from  Satan's  foot  to  Peter's  knee  — 
These  news  be  mine,  none  other's  —  nay,  the  King's  — 
Descend  into  the  city  :  "  whereon  he  sought  530 

The  King  alone,  and  found,  and  told  him  all. 

"  I  have  stagger'd  thy  strong  Gawain  in  a  tilt 
For  pastime  ;  yea,  he  said  it :  joust  can  I. 
Make  me  thy  knight  —  in  secret !  let  my  name 
Be  hidden,  and  give  me  the  first  quest,  I  spring  535 

Like  flame  from  ashes." 

Here  the  King's  calm  eye 
Fell  on,  and  check'd,  and  made  him  flush,  and  bow 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  19 

Lowly,  to  kiss  his  hand,  who  answer'd  him : 

"  Son,  the  good  mother  let  me  know  thee  here, 

And  sent  her  wish  that  I  would  yield  thee  thine.  540 

Make  thee  my  knight  ?  my  knights  are  sworn  to  vows 

Of  utter  hardihood,  utter  gentleness, 

And,  loving,  utter  faithfulness  in  love, 

And  uttermost  obedience  to  the  King." 

Then  Gareth,  lightly  springing  from  his  knees  :  545 

"  My  King,  for  hardihood  I  can  promise  thee. 
For  uttermost  obedience  make  demand 
Of  whom  ye  gave  me  to,  the  Seneschal, 
No  mellow  master  of  the  meats  and  drinks  1 
And  as  for  love,  God  wot,  I  love  not  yet,  550 

But  love  I  shall,  God  willing." 

And  the  King: 

"  Make  thee  my  knight  in  secret  ?  yea,  but  he, 
Our  noblest  brother,  and  our  truest  man, 
And  one  with  me  in  all,  he  needs  must  know." 

"  Let  Lancelot  know,  my  King,  let  Lancelot  know,         555 
Thy  noblest  and  thy  truest !  " 

And  the  King-. 

"  But  wherefore  would  ye  men  should  wonder  at  you  ? 
Nay,  rather  for  the  sake  of  me,  their  King, 
And  the  deed's  sake  my  knighthood  do  the  deed, 
Than  to  be  noised  of." 

Merrily  Gareth  ask'd  :  560 

"  Have  I  not  earn'd  my  cake  in  baking  of  it  ? 
Let  be  my  name  until  I  make  my  name  ! 
My  deeds  will  speak :  it  is  but  for  a  day." 


20  IDYLLS   OF   THE    KING 

So  with  a  kindly  hand  on  Gareth's  arm 

Smiled  the  great  King,  and  half-unwillingly  565 

Loving  his  lusty  youthhood  yielded  to  him. 

Then,  after  summoning  Lancelot  privily : 

"  I  have  given  him  the  first  quest :  he  is  not  proven. 

Look  therefore,  when  he  calls  for  this  in  hall, 

Thou  get  to  horse  and  follow  him  far  away.  570 

Cover  the  lions  on  thy  shield,  and  see, 

Far  as  thou  mayest,  he  be  nor  ta'en  nor  slain." 

Then  that  same  day  there  past  into  the  hall 
A  damsel  of  high  lineage,  and  a  brow 

May-blossom,  and  a  cheek  of  apple-blossom,  575 

Hawk-eyes  ;  and  lightly  was  her  slender  nose 
Tip-tilted  like  the  petal  of  a  flower : 
She  into  hall  past  with  her  page  and  cried : 

"  O  King,  for  thou  hast  driven  the  foe  without, 
See  to  the  foe  within  !  bridge,  ford,  beset  580 

By  bandits,  every  one  that  owns  a  tower 
The  lord  of  half  a  league.     Why  sit  ye  there  ? 
Rest  would  I  not,  Sir  King,  an  I  were  king, 
Till  even  the  lonest  hold  were  all  as  free 
From  cursed  bloodshed  as  thine  altar-cloth  585 

From  that  best  blood  it  is  a  sin  to  spill." 

"  Comfort  thyself,"  said  Arthur,  "  I  nor  mine 
Rest :  so  my  knighthood  keep  the  vows  they  swore, 
The  wastest  moorland  of  our  realm  shall  be 
Safe,  damsel,  as  the  centre  of  this  hall.  590 

What  is  thy  name  ?  thy  need  ?  " 

"  My  name  ?  "  she  said  — 
"  Lynette,  my  name  ;  noble  ;  my  need,  a  knight 


GARETH   AND    LYNETTE  21 

To  combat  for  my  sister,  Lyonors, 

A  lady  of  high  lineage,  of  great  lands, 

And  comely,  yea,  and  comelier  than  myself.  595 

She  lives  in  Castle  Perilous  :  a  river 

Runs  in  three  loops  about  her  living-place  ; 

And  o'er  it  are  three  passings,  and  three  knights 

Defend  the  passings,  brethren,  and  a  fourth, 

And  of  that  four  the  mightiest,  holds  her  stay'd  600 

In  her  own  castle,  and  so  besieges  her 

To  break  her  will,  and  make  her  wed  with  him  ; 

And  but  delays  his  purport  till  thou  send 

To  do  the  battle  with  him  thy  chief  man 

Sir  Lancelot,  whom  he  trusts  to  overthrow  ;  605 

Then  wed,  with  glory  :  but  she  will  not  wed 

Save  whom  she  loveth,  or  a  holy  life. 

Now  therefore  have  I  come  for  Lancelot." 


Then  Arthur  mindful  of  Sir  Gareth  ask'd  : 
"  Damsel,  ye  know  this  Order  lives  to  crush  610 

All  wrongers  of  the  realm.     But  say,  these  four, 
Who  be  they  ?     What  the  fashion  of  the  men  ?  " 

"  They  be  of  foolish  fashion,  O  Sir  King, 
The  fashion  of  that  old  knight-errantry 
Who  ride  abroad,  and  do  but  what  they  will  ;  615 

Courteous  or  bestial  from  the  moment,  such 
As  have  nor  law  nor  king  ;  and  three  of  these 
Proud  in  their  fantasy  call  themselves  the  Day, 
Morning-Star,  and  Noon-Sun,  and  Evening-Star, 
Being  strong  fools  ;  and  never  a  whit  more  wise  620 

The  fourth,  who  alway  rideth  arm'd  in  black, 
A  huge  man-beast  of  boundless  savagery. 
He  names  himself  the  Night  and  oftener  Death, 


22  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

And  wears  a  helmet  mounted  with  a  skull, 

And  bears  a  skeleton  figured  on  his  arms,  62t 

To  show  that  who  may  slay  or  scape  the  three, 

Slain  by  himself,  shall  enter  endless  night. 

And  all  these  four  be  fools,  but  mighty  men, 

And  therefore  am  I  come  for  Lancelot." 

Hereat  Sir  Gareth  call'd  from  where  he  rose,  630 

A  head  with  kindling  eyes  above  the  throng, 
"A  boon,  Sir  King — this  quest!"  then — for  he  mark'd 
Kay  near  him  groaning  like  a  wounded  bull  — 
"  Yea,  King,  thou  knowest  thy  kitchen-knave  am  I, 
And  mighty  thro'  thy  meats  and  drinks  am  I,  635 

And  I  can  topple  over  a  hundred  such. 
Thy  promise,  King,"  and  Arthur  glancing  at  him, 
Brought  down  a  momentary  brow.     "Rough,  sudden, 
And  pardonable,  worthy  to  be  knight — 
Go  therefore,"  and  all  hearers  were  amazed.  640 

J2K 

But  on  the  damsel's  forehead  shame,  pride,  wrath 
Slew  the  may-white :  she  lifted  either  arm, 
"  Fie  on  thee,  King !     I  ask'd  for  thy  chief  knight, 
And  thou  hast  given  me  but  a  kitchen-knave." 
Then  ere  a  man  in  hall  could  stay  her,  turn'd,  645 

Fled  down  the  lane  of  access  to  the  King, 
Took  horse,  descended  the  slope  street,  and  past 
The  weird  white  gate,  and  paused  without,  beside 
The  field  of  tourney,  murmuring  "kitchen-knave!" 

Now  two  great  entries  open'd  from  the  hall,  650 

At  one  end  one  that  gave  upon  a  range 
Of  level  pavement  where  the  King  would  pace 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  23 

At  sunrise,  gazing  over  plain  and  wood; 

And  down  from  this  a  lordly  stairway  sloped 

Till  lost  in  blowing  trees  and  tops  of  towers ;  655 

And  out  by  this  main  doorway  past  the  King. 

But  one  was  counter  to  the  hearth,  and  rose 

High  that  the  highest-crested  helm  could  ride 

Therethro'  nor  graze ;  and  by  this  entry  fled 

The  damsel  in  her  wrath,  and  on  to  this  660 

Sir  Gareth  strode,  and  saw  without  the  door 

King  Arthur's  gift,  the  worth  of  half  a  town, 

A  war-horse  of  the  best,  and  near  it  stood 

The  two  that  out  of  north  had  follow'd  him. 

This  bare  a  maiden  shield,  a  casque ;  that  held  665 

The  horse,  the  spear ;  whereat  Sir  Gareth  loosed 

A  cloak  that  dropt  from  collar-bone  to  heel, 

A  cloth  of  roughest  web,  and  cast  it  down, 

And  from  it,  like  a  fuel-smother'd  fire 

That  lookt  half-dead,  brake  bright,  and  flash'd  as  those    670 

Dull-coated  things,  that  making  slide  apart 

Their  dusk  wing-cases,  all  beneath  there  burns 

A  jewell'd  harness,  ere  they  pass  and  fly. 

So  Gareth  ere  he  parted  flash'd  in  arms. 

Then  as  he  donn'd  the  helm,  and  took  the  shield  675 

And  mounted  horse  and  graspt  a  spear,  of  grain 

Storm-strengthen'd  on  a  windy  site,  and  tipt 

With  trenchant  steel,  around  him  slowly  prest 

The  people,  while  from  out  of  kitchen  came 

The  thralls  in  throng,  and  seeing  who  had  work'd  680 

Lustier  than  any,  and  whom  they  could  but  love, 

Mounted  in  arms,  threw  up  their  caps  and  cried, 

"God  bless  the  King,  and  all  his  fellowship!" 

And  on  thro'  lanes  of  shouting  Gareth  rode 

Down  the  slope  street,  and  past  without  the  gate.  685 


24  IDYLLS   OF   THE    KING 

So  Gareth  past  with  joy ;  but  as  the  cur 
Pluckt  from  the  cur  he  fights  with,  ere  his  cause 
Be  cool'd  by  fighting,  follows,  being  named, 
His  owner,  but  remembers  all,  and  growls 
Remembering,  so  Sir  Kay  beside  the  door  690 

Mutter'd  in  scorn  of  Gareth  whom  he  used 
To  harry  and  hustle. 

"Bound  upon  a  quest 

With  horse  and  arms — the  King  hath  past  his  time — 
My  scullion  knave !     Thralls,  to  your  work  again, 
For  an  your  fire  be  low  ye  kindle  mine !  695 

Will  there  be  dawn  in  West  and  eve  in  East  ? 
Begone! — my  knave! — belike  and  like  enow 
Some  old  head-blow  not  heeded  in  his  youth 
So  shook  his  wits  they  wander  in  his  prime  — 
Crazed !     How  the  villain  lifted  up  his  voice,  700 

Nor  shamed  to  bawl  himself  a  kitchen-knave  ! 
Tut,  he  was  tame  and  meek  enow  with  me, 
Till  peacock'd  up  with  Lancelot's  noticing. 
Well  —  I  will  after  my  loud  knave,  and  learn 
Whether  he  know  me  for  his  master  yet.  705 

Out  of  the  smoke  he  came,  and  so  my  lance 
Hold,  by  God's  grace,  he  shall  into  the  mire  — 
Thence,  if  the  King  awaken  from  his  craze, 
Into  the  smoke  again." 

But  Lancelot  said : 

"  Kay,  wherefore  wilt  thou  go  against  the  King,  710 

For  that  did  never  he  whereon  ye  rail,  ' 
But  ever  meekly  served  the  King  in  thee? 
Abide  :  take  counsel ;  for  this  lad  is  great 
And  lusty,  and  knowing  both  of  lance  and  sword." 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  25 

"Tut,  tell  not  me,"  said  Kay,  uye  are  overfine  715 

To  mar  stout  knaves  with  foolish  courtesies : " 
Then  mounted,  on  thro'  silent  faces  rode 
Down  the  slope  city,  and  out  beyond  the  gate. 

But  by  the  field  of  tourney  lingering  yet 
Mutter'd  the  damsel :  "  Wherefore  did  the  King  720 

Scorn  me  ?  for,  were  Sir  Lancelot  lackt,  at  least 
He  might  have  yielded  to  me  one  of  those 
Who  tilt  for  lady's  love  and  glory  here, 
Rather  than — O  sweet  heaven  !     O  fie  upon  him  !  — 
His  kitchen-knave." 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  drew —          725 
And  there  were  none  but  few  goodlier  than  he  — 
Shining  in  arms,  "Damsel,  the  quest  is  mine. 
Lead,  and  I  follow."     She  thereat,  as  one 
That  smells  a  foul-flesh'd  agaric  in  the  holt, 
And  deems  it  carrion  of  some  woodland  thing,  730 

Or  shrew,  or  weasel,  nipt  her  slender  nose 
With  petulant  thumb  and  finger,  shrilling,  "Hence! 
Avoid,  thou  smellest  all  of  kitchen-grease. 
And  look  who  comes  behind;"  for  there  was  Kay. 
"Knowest  thou  not  me  ?  thy  master?     I  am  Kay.  735 

We  lack  thee  by  the  hearth." 

And  Gareth  to  him, 

"Master  no  more  !  too  well  I  know  thee,  ay — 
The  most  ungentle  knight  in  Arthur's  hall." 
"  Have  at  thee  then,"  said  Kay :  they  shock'd,  and  Kay 
Fell  shoulder-slipt,  and  Gareth  cried  again,  740 

"Lead,  and  I  follow,"  and  fast  away  she  fled. 

But  after  sod  and  shingle  ceased  to  fly 
Behind  her,  and  the  heart  of  her  good  horse 


26  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Was  nigh  to  burst  with  violence  of  the  beat, 

Perforce  she  stay'd,  and  overtaken  spoke  :  745 

"What  doest  thou,  scullion,  in  my  fellowship? 
Deem'st  thou  that  I  accept  thee  aught  the  more 
Or  love  thee  better,  that  by  some  device 
Full  cowardly,  or  by  mere  unhappiness, 
Thou  hast  overthrown  and  slain  thy  master  —  thou  !  —  750 
Dish-washer  and  broach-turner,  loon  !  —  to  me 
Thou  smellest  all  of  kitchen  as  before." 

"  Damsel,"  Sir  Gareth  answer'd  gently,  "  say 
Whate'er  ye  will,  but  whatsoe'er  ye  say, 
I  leave  not  till  I  finish  this  fair  quest,  755 

Or  die  therefor." 

"  Ay,  wilt  thou  finish  it  ? 

Sweet  lord,  how  like  a  noble  knight  he  talks ! 
The  listening  rogue  hath  caught  the  manner  of  it 
But,  knave,  anon  thou  shalt  be  met  with,  knave, 
And  then  by  such  a  one  that  thou  for  all  760 

The  kitchen  brewis  that  was  ever  supt 
Shalt  not  once  dare  to  look  him  in  the  face." 

"  I  shall  assay,"  said  Gareth  with  a  smile 
That  madden'd  her,  and  away  she  flash'd  again 
Down  the  long  avenues  of  a  boundless  wood,  765 

And  Gareth  following  was  again  beknaved : 

"  Sir  Kitchen-knave,  I  have  miss'd  the  only  way 
Where  Arthur's  men  are  set  along  the  wood ; 
The  wood  is  nigh  as  full  of  thieves  as  leaves  : 
If  both  be  slain,  I  am  rid  of  thee ;  but  yet,  770 

Sir  Scullion,  canst  thou  use  that  spit  of  thine  ? 
Fight,  an  thou  canst :  I  have  miss'd  the  only  way." 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  27 

So  till  the  dusk  that  follow'd  evensong 
Rode  on  the  two,  reviler  and  reviled ; 

Then  after  one  long  slope  was  mounted,  saw,  775 

Bowl-shaped,  thro'  tops  of  many  thousand  pines 
A  gloomy-gladed  hollow  slowly  sink 
To  westward  —  in  the  deeps  whereof  a  mere, 
Round  as  the  red  eye  of  an  eagle-owl, 

Under  the  half-dead  sunset  glared  ;  and  shouts  780 

Ascended,  and  there  brake  a  servingman 
Flying  from  out  of  the  black  wood,  and  crying, 
"  They  have  bound  my  lord  to  cast  him  in  the  mere." 
Then  Gareth,  "  Bound  am  I  to  right  the  wrong'd, 
But  straitlier  bound  am  I  to  bide  with  thee."  785 

And  when  the  damsel  spake  contemptuously, 
"Lead,  and  I  follow,"  Gareth  cried  again, 
"  Follow,  I  lead  !  "  so  down  among  the  pines 
He  plunged  ;  and  there,  black-shadow'd  nigh  the  mere, 
And  mid-thigh-deep  in  bulrushes  and  reed,  790 

Saw  six  tall  men  haling  a  seventh  along, 
A  stone  about  his  neck  to  drown  him  in  it. 
Three  with  good  blows  he  quieted,  but  three 
Fled  thro'  the  pines ;  and  Gareth  loosed  the  stone 
From  off  his  neck,  then  in  the  mere  beside  795 

Tumbled  it ;  oilily  bubbled  up  the  mere. 
Last,  Gareth  loosed  his  bonds  and  on  free  feet 
Set  him,  a  stalwart  baron,  Arthur's  friend. 

"Well  that  ye  came,  or  else  these  caitiff  rogues 
Had  wreak'd  themselves  on  me  ;  good  cause  is  theirs      800 
To  hate  me,  for  my  wont  hath  ever  been 
To  catch  my  thief,  and  then  like  vermin  here 
Drown  him,  and  with  a  stone  about  his  neck ; 
And  under  this  wan  water  many  of  them 


28  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Lie  rotting,  but  at  night  let  go  the  stone,  805 

And  rise,  and  flickering  in  a  grimly  light 

Dance  on  the  mere.     Good  now,  ye  have  saved  a  lite 

Worth  somewhat  as  the  cleanser  of  this  wood. 

And  fain  would  I  reward  thee  worshipfully. 

What  guerdon  will  ye  ?  " 

Gareth  sharply  spake  :  gio 

"  None  !  for  the  deed's  sake  have  I  done  the  deed, 
In  uttermost  obedience  to  the  King. 
But  wilt  thou  yield  this  damsel  harborage  ?  " 

Whereat  the  baron  saying,  "I  well  believe 
You  be  of  Arthur's  Table,"  a  light  laugh  815 

Broke  from  Lynette :  "  Ay,  truly  of  a  truth, 
And  in  a  sort,  being  Arthur's  kitchen-knave !  —  . 
But  deem  not  I  accept  thee  aught  the  more, 
Scullion,  for  running  sharply  with  thy  spit 
Down  on  a  rout  of  craven  foresters.  820 

A  thresher  with  his  flail  had  scatter'd  them. 
Nay  —  for  thou  smellest  of  the  kitchen  still. 
But  an  this  lord  will  yield  us  harborage, 
Well." 

So  she  spake.     A  league  beyond  the  wood, 
All  in  a  full-fair  manor  and  a  rich,  825 

His  towers,  where  that  day  a  feast  had  been 
Held  in  high  hall,  and  many  a  viand  left, 
And  many  a  costly  cate,  received  the  three. 
And  there  they  placed  a  peacock  in  his  pride 
Before  the  damsel,  and  the  baron  set  830 

Gareth  beside  her,  but  at  once  she  rose. 


GARETH   AND    LYNETTE  29 

"  Meseems,  that  here  is  much  discourtesy, 
Setting  this  knave,  Lord  Baron,  at  my  side. 
Hear  me  —  this  morn  I  stood  in  Arthur's  hall, 
And  pray'd  the  King  would  grant  me  Lancelot  835 

To  fight  the  brotherhood  of  Day  and  Night  — 
The  last  a  monster  unsubduable 
Of  any  save  of  him  for  whom  I  call'd  — 
Suddenly  bawls  this  frontless  kitchen-knave, 
'  The  quest  is  mine  ;  thy  kitchen-knave  am  I,  840 

And  mighty  thro'  thy  meats  and  drinks  am  I.' 
Then  Arthur  all  at  once  gone  mad  replies, 
'Go  therefore,'  and  so  gives  the  quest  to  him  — 
Him  —  here  —  a  villain  fitter  to  stick  swine 
Than  ride  abroad  redressing  women's  wrong,  845 

Or  sit  beside  a  noble  gentlewoman." 

Then  half-ashamed  and  part-amazed,  the  lord 
Now  look'd  at  one  and  now  at  other,  left 
The  damsel  by  the  peacock  in  his  pride, 
And,  seating  Gareth  at  another  board,  850 

Sat  down  beside  him,  ate  and  then  began : 

"  Friend,  whether  thou  be  kitchen-knave,  or  not, 
Or  whether  it  be  the  maiden  s  fantasy, 
And  whether  she  be  mad,  or  else  the  King, 
Or  both  or  neither,  or  thyself  be  mad,  855 

I  ask  not :  but  thou  strikest  a  strong  stroke, 
For  strong  thou  art  and  goodly  therewithal 
And  saver  of  my  life  ;  and  therefore  now, 
For  here  be  mighty  men  to  joust  with,  weigh 
Whether  thou  wilt  not  with  thy  damsel  back  860 

To  crave  again  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  King. 
Thy  pardon  ;  I  but  speak  for  thine  avail, 
The  saver  of  my  life." 


30  IDYLLS    OF   THE    KING 

And  Gareth  said, 

"  Full  pardon,  but  I  follow  up  the  quest, 
Despite  of  Day  and  Night  and  Death  and  Hell."  865 

So  when,  next  morn,  the  lord  whose  life  he  saved 
Had,  some  brief  space,  convey'd  them  on  their  way 
And  left  them  with  God-speed,  Sir  Gareth  spake, 
"  Lead,  and  I  follow."     Haughtily  she  replied  : 

"  I  fly  no  more  :  I  allow  thee  for  an  hour.  870 

Lion  and  stoat  have  isled  together,  knave, 
In  time  of  flood.     Nay,  furthermore,  methinks 
Some  ruth  is  mine  for  thee.     Back  wilt  thou,  fool  ? 
For  hard  by  here  is  one  will  overthrow 

And  slay  thee  ;  then  will  I  to  court  again,  875 

And  shame  the  King  for  only  yielding  me 
My  champion  from  the  ashes  of  his  hearth." 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  answer'd  courteously : 
"  Say  thou  thy  say,  and  I  will  do  my  deed. 
Allow  me  for  mine  hour,  and  thou  wilt  find  880 

My  fortunes  all  as  fair  as  hers  who  lay 
Among  the  ashes  and  wedded  the  King's  son." 

Then  to  the  shore  of  one  of  those  long  loops 
Wherethfo'  the  serpent  river  coil'd,  they  came. 
Rough-thicketed  were  the  banks  and  steep ;  the  stream    885 
Full,  narrow ;  this  a  bridge  of  single  arc 
Took  at  a  leap ;  and  on  the  further  side 
Arose  a  silk  pavilion,  gay  with  gold 
In  streaks  and  rays,  and  all  Lent-lily  in  hue, 
Save  that  the  dome  was  purple,  and  above,  890 

Crimson,  a  slender  banneret  fluttering. 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  31 

And  therebefore  the  lawless  warrior  paced 

Unarm'd,  and  calling,  "  Damsel,  is  this  he, 

The  champion  thou  hast  brought  from  Arthur's  hall  ? 

For  whom  we  let  thee  pass."     "Nay,  nay,"  she  said,        895 

"  Sir  Morning-Star.     The  King  in  utter  scorn 

Of  thee  and  thy  much  folly  hath  sent  thee  here 

His  kitchen-knave  :  and  look  thou  to  thyself: 

See  that  he  fall  not  on  thee  suddenly, 

And  slay  thee  unarm'd  ;  he  is  not  knight  but  knave."  -      900 

Then  at  his  call,  "  O  daughters  of  the  Dawn, 
And  servants  of  the  Morn  ing- Star,  approach, 
Arm  me,"  from  out  the  silken  curtain-folds 
Bare-footed  and  bare-headed  three  fair  girls 
In  gilt  and  rosy  raiment  came  :  their  feet  905 

In  dewy  grasses  glisten'd ;  and  the  hair 
All  over  glanced  with  dewdrop  or  with  gem 
Like  sparkles  in  the  stone  Avanturine. 
These  arm'd  him  in  blue  arms,  and  gave  a  shield 
Blue  also,  and  thereon  the  morning  star.  910 

And  Gareth  silent  gazed  upon  the  knight, 
Who  stood  a  moment,  ere  his  horse  was  brought, 
Glorying ;  and  in  the  stream  beneath  him  shone, 
Immingled  with  Heaven's  azure  waveringly, 
The  gay  pavilion  and  the  naked  feet,  915 

His  arms,  the  rosy  raiment,  and  the  star. 

Then  she  that  watch'd  him  :   "  Wherefore  stare  ye  so  ? 
Thou  shakest  in  thy  fear  :  there  yet  is  time : 
Flee  down  the  valley  before  he  get  to  horse. 
Who  will  cry  shame  ?     Thou  art  not  knight  but  knave."  920 

Said  Gareth  :  "  Damsel,  whether  knave  or  knight, 
Far  liefer  had  I  fight  a  score  of  times 


32  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Than  hear  thee  so  missay  me  and  revile. 

Fair  words  were  best  for  him  who  fights  for  thee ; 

But  truly  foul  are  better,  for  they  send  925 

That  strength  of  anger  thro'  mine  arms,  I  know 

That  I  shall  overthrow  him." 

And  he  that  bore 

The  star,  when  mounted,  cried  from  o'er  the  bridge : 
"A  kitchen-knave,  and  sent  in  scorn  of  me  ! 
Such  fight  not  I,  but  answer  scorn  with  scorn.  930 

For  this  were  shame  to  do  him  further  wrong 
Than  set  him  on  his  feet,  and  take  his  horse 
And  arms,  and  so  return  him  to  the  King. 
Come,  therefore,  leave  thy  lady  light! y,  knave. 
Avoid  :  for  it  beseemeth  not  a  knave  935 

To  ride  with  such  a  lady." 

"  Dog,  thou  liest ! 

I  spring  from  loftier  lineage  than  thine  own." 
He  spake ;  and  all  at  fiery  speed  the  two 
Shock'd  on  the  central  bridge,  and  either  spear 
Bent  but  not  brake,  and  either  knight  at  once,  940 

Hurl'd  as  a  stone  from  out  of  a  catapult 
Beyond  the  horse's  crupper  and  the  bridge, 
Fell,  as  if  dead  ;  but  quickly  rose  and  drew, 
And  Gareth  lash'd  so  fiercely  with  his  brand 
He  drave  his  enemy  backward  down  the  bridge,  945 

The  damsel  crying,  "  Well-stricken,  kitchen-knave  !  " 
Till  Gareth's  shield  was  cloven ;  but  one  stroke 
Laid  him  that  clove  it  grovelling  on  the  ground. 

Then  cried  the  fallen,  "  Take  not  my  life  :  I  yield." 
And  Gareth,  "  So  this  damsel  ask  it  of  me  950 

Good  —  I  accord  it  easily  as  a  grace." 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  33 

She  reddening,  "  Insolent  scullion  !  I  of  thee  ? 

I  bound  to  thee  for  any  favor  ask'd !  " 

"  Then  shall  he  die."     And  Gareth  there  unlaced 

His  helmet  as  to  slay  him,  but  she  shriek'd,  955 

"  Be  not  so  hardy,  scullion,  as  to  slay 

One  nobler  than  thyself."    "  Damsel,  thy  charge 

Is  an  abounding  pleasure  to  me.     Knight, 

Thy  life  is  thine  at  her  command.     Arise 

And  quickly  pass  to  Arthur's  hall,  and  say  960 

His  kitchen-knave  hath  sent  thee.     See  thou  crave 

His  pardon  for  thy  breaking  of  his  laws. 

Myself  when  I  return  will  plead  for  thee. 

Thy  shield  is  mine  —  farewell ;  and,  damsel,  thou, 

Lead,  and  I  follow." 

And  fast  away  she  fled  ;  965 

Then  when  he  came  upon  her,  spake  :  "  Methought, 
Knave,  when  I  watch'd  thee  striking  on  the  bridge, 
The  savor  of  thy  kitchen  came  upon  me 
A  little  faintlier  :  but  the  wind  hath  changed  ; 
I  scent  it  twenty-fold."     And  then  she  sang,  970 

" '  O  morning  star '  —  not  that  tall  felon  there, 
Whom  thou,  by  sorcery  or  unhappiness 
Or  some  device,  hast  foully  overthrown,  — 
'  O  morning  star  that  smilest  in  the  blue, 
O  star,  my  morning  dream  hath  proven  true,  975 

Smile  sweetly,  thou !  my  love  hath  smiled  on  me.' 

"  But  thou  begone,  take  counsel,  and  away, 
For  hard  by  here  is  one  that  guards  a  ford  — 
The  second  brother  in  their  fool's  parable  — 
Will  pay  thee  all  thy  wages,  and  to  boot.  980 

Care  not  for  shame :  thou  art  not  knight  but  knave." 


34  IDYLLS   OF   THE    KING 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  answer'd,  laughingly : 
"  Parables  ?     Hear  a  parable  of  the  knave. 
When  I  was  kitchen-knave  among  the  rest, 
Fierce  was  the  hearth,  and  one  of  my  co-mates  985 

Own'd  a  rough  dog,  to  whom  he  cast  his  coat, 
'  Guard  it,'  and  there  was  none  to  meddle  with  it 
And  such  a  coat  art  thou,  and  thee  the  King 
Gave  me  to  guard,  and  such  a  dog  am  I, 
To  worry,  and  not  to  flee  ;  and  —  knight  or  knave  —        990 
The  knave  that  doth  thee  service  as  full  knight 
Is  all  as  good,  meseems,  as  any  knight 
Toward  thy  sister's  freeing." 

"  Ay,  Sir  Knave  ! 

Ay,  knave,  because  thou  strikest  as  a  knight, 
Being  but  knave,  I  hate  thee  all  the  more."  995 

"Fair  damsel,  you  should  worship  me  the  more, 
That,  being  but  knave,  I  throw  thine  enemies." 

"Ay,  ay,"  she  said,  "but  thou  shalt  meet  thy  match." 

So  when  they  touch'd  the  second  river-loop, 
Huge  on  a  high  red  horse,  and  all  in  mail  1000 

Burnish'd  to  blinding,  shone  the  Noonday  Sun, 
Beyond  a  raging  shallow.     As  if  the  flower 
That  blows  a  globe  of  after  arrowlets 
Ten  thousand-fold  had  grown,  flash'd  the  fierce  shield, 
All  sun ;  and  Gareth's  eyes  had  flying  blots  1005 

Before  them  when  he  turn'd  from  watching  him. 
He  from  beyond  the  roaring  shallow  roar'd, 
"What  doest  thou,  brother,  in  my  marches  here?" 
And  she  athwart  the  shallow  shrill'd  again, 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE 


35 


"  Here  is  a  kitchen-knave  from  Arthur's  hall  1010 

Hath  overthrown  thy  brother,  and  hath  his  arms." 

"Ugh!"  cried  the  Sun,  and,  vizoring  up  a  red 

And  cipher  face  of  rounded  foolishness, 

Push'd  horse  across  the  foamings  of  the  ford, 

Whom  Gareth  met  mid-stream;  no  room  was  there  1015 

For  lance  or  tourney-skill ;  four  strokes  they  struck 

With  sword,  and  these  were  mighty ;  the  new  knight 

Had  fear  he  might  be  shamed ;  but  as  the  Sun 

Heaved  up  a  ponderous  arm  to  strike  the  fifth, 

The  hoof  of  his  horse  slipt  in  the  stream,  the  stream       1020 

Descended,  and  the  Sun  was  wash'd  away. 

Then  Gareth  laid  his  lance  athwart  the  ford ; 
So  drew  him  home ;  but  he  that  fought  no  more, 
As  being  all  bone-batter'd  on  the  rock, 

Yielded  ;  and  Gareth  sent  him  to  the  King.  102$ 

"  Myself  when  I  return  will  plead  for  thee. 
Lead,  and  I  follow."     Quietly  she  led. 
"Hath  not  the  good  wind,  damsel,  changed  again?" 
"Nay,  not  a  point;  nor  art  thou  victor  here. 
There  lies  a  ridge  of  slate  across  the  ford ;  JOIQ 

His  horse  thereon  stumbled  —  ay,  for  I  saw  it. 

"'O  sun'  —  not  this  strong  fool  whom  thou,  Sir  Knave, 
Hast  overthrown  thro'  mere  unhappiness  — 
'  O  sun,  that  wakenest  all  to  bliss  or  pain, 
O  moon,  that  layest  all  to  sleep  again,  1035 

Shine  sweetly:  twice  my  love  hath  smiled  on  me.' 

"  What  knowest  thou  of  love-song  or  of  love  ? 
Nay,  nay,  God  wot,  so  thou  wert  nobly  born, 
Thou  hast  a  pleasant  presence.     Yea,  perchance,  — 


36  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

"'O  dewy  flowers  that  open  to  the  sun,  1040 

O  dewy  flowers  that  close  when  day  is  done, 
Blow  sweetly  :  twice  my  love  hath  smiled  on  me.' 

"  What  knowest  thou  of  flowers,  except,  belike, 
To  garnish  meats  with  ?  hath  not  our  good  King 
Who  lent  me  thee,  the  flower  of  kitchendom,  1045 

A  foolish  love  for  flowers  ?  what  stick  ye  round 
The  pasty  ?  wherewithal  deck  the  boar's  head  ? 
Flowers  ?  nay,  the  boar  hath  rosemaries  and  bay. 

'"O  birds  that  warble  to  the  morning  sky, 
O  birds  that  warble  as  the  day  goes  by,  1050 

Sing  sweetly :  twice  my  love  hath  smiled  on  me.' 

"What  knowest  thou  of  birds,  lark,  mavis,  merle, 
Linnet  ?  what  dream  ye  when  they  utter  forth 
May-music  growing  with  the  growing  light, 
Their  sweet  sun-worship  ?  these  be  for  the  snare  —         1055 
So  runs  thy  fancy  —  these  be  for  the  spit, 
Larding  and  basting.     See  thou  have  not  now 
Larded  thy  last,  except  thou  turn  and  fly. 
There  stands  the  third  fool  of  their  allegory." 

For  there  beyond  a  bridge  of  treble  bow,  1060 

All  in  a  rose-red  from  the  west,  and  all 
Naked  it  seem'd,  and  glowing  in  the  broad 
Deep-dimpled  current  underneath,  the  knight 
That  named  himself  the  Star  of  Evening  stood. 

And  Gareth,  "  Wherefore  waits  the  madman  there       1065 
Naked  in  open  dayshine?"     "Nay,"  she  cried, 
"Not  naked,  only  wrapt  in  harden'd  skins 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  37 

That  fit  him  like  his  own ;  and  so  ye  cleave 
His  armor  off  him,  these  will  turn  the  blade." 

Then  the  third  brother  shouted  o'er  the  bridge,  1070 

"O  brother-star,  why  shine  ye  here  so  low? 
Thy  ward  is  higher  up :  but  have  ye  slain 
The  damsel's  champion  ? "  and  the  damsel  cried  : 

"No  star  of  thine,  but  shot  from  Arthur's  heaven 
With  all  disaster  unto  thine  and  thee  !  I07j 

For  both  thy  younger  brethren  have  gone  down 
Before  this  youth ;  and  so  wilt  thou,  Sir  Star ; 
Art  thou  not  old  ? " 

"  Old,  damsel,  old  and  hard, 
Old,  with  the  might  and  breath  of  twenty  boys." 
Said  Gareth,  "Old,  and  over-bold  in  brag!  I08o 

But  that  same  strength  which  threw  the  Morning  Star 
Can  throw  the  Evening." 

Then  that  other  blew 
A  hard  and  deadly  note  upon  the  horn. 
"  Approach  and  arm  me  !  "     With  slow  steps  from  out 
An  old  storm-beaten,  russet,  many-stain'd  1085 

Pavilion,  forth  a  grizzled  damsel  came, 
And  arm'd  him  in  old  arms,  and  brought  a  helm 
With  but  a  drying  evergreen  for  crest, 
And  gave  a  shield  whereon  the  star  of  even 
Half-tarnish'd  and  half-bright,  his  emblem,  shone.  1090 

But  when  it  glitter'd  o'er  the  saddle-bow, 
They  madly  hurl'd  together  on  the  bridge ; 
And  Gareth  overthrew  him,  lighted,  drew, 
There  met  him  drawn,  and  overthrew  him  again, 
But  up  like  fire  he  started  :  and  as  oft  1095 


38  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

As  Gareth  brought  him  grovelling  on  his  knees, 
So  many  a  time  he  vaulted  up  again  ; 
Till  Gareth  panted  hard,  and  his  great  heart, 
Foredooming  all  his  trouble  was  in  vain, 
Labor'd  within  him,  for  he  seem'd  as  one  noo 

That  all  in  later,  sadder  age  begins 
To  war  against  ill  uses  of  a  life, 
But  these  from  all  his  life  arise,  and  cry, 
"Thou  hast  made  us  lords,  and  canst  not  put  us  down!" 
He  half  despairs;  so  Gareth  seem'd  to  strike  1105 

Vainly,  the  damsel  clamoring  all  the  while, 
"Well  done,  knave-knight,  well  stricken,   O  good  knight- 
knave — 

O  knave,  as  noble  as  any  of  all  the  knights — 
Shame  me  not,  shame  me  not.     I  have  prophesied  — 
Strike,  thou  art  worthy  of  the  Table  Round —  mo 

His  arms  are  old,  he  trusts  the  harden'd  skin — 
Strike — strike — the  wind  will  never  change  again." 
And  Gareth  hearing  ever  stronglier  smote, 
And  hew'd  great  pieces  of  his  armor  off  him, 
But  lash'd  in  vain  against  the  harden'd  skin,  1115 

And  could  not  wholly  bring  him  under,  more 
Than  loud  Southwesterns,  rolling  ridge  on  ridge, 
The  buoy  that  rides  at  sea,  and  dips  and  springs 
For  ever ;  till  at  length  Sir  Gareth's  brand 
Clash'd  his,  and  brake  it  utterly  to  the  hilt.  1120 

"  I  have  thee  now ;  "  but  forth  that  other  sprang, 
And,  all  unknightlike,  writhed  his  wiry  arms 
Around  him,  till  he  felt,  despite  his  mail, 
Strangled,  but  straining  even  his  uttermost 
Cast,  and  so  hurl'd  him  headlong  o'er  the  bridge  1125 

Down  to  the  river,  sink  or  swim,  and  cried, 
"  Lead,  and  I  follow." 


GARETH   AN  3   LYNETTE  39 

But  the  damsel  said : 
"  I  lead  no  longer  ;  ride  thou  at  my  side  ; 
Thou  art  the  kingliest  of  all  kitchen-knaves. 

"  '  O  trefoil,  sparkling  on  the  rainy  plain,  1130 

O  rainbow  with  three  colors  after  rain, 
Shine  sweetly :  thrice  my  love  hath  smiled  on  me.' 

"  Sir,  —  and,  good  faith,  I  fain  had  added  —  Knight, 
But  that  I  heard  thee  call  thyself  a  knave,  — 
Shamed  am  I  that  I  so  rebuked,  reviled,  "35 

Missaid  thee ;  noble  I  am  ;  and  thought  the  King 
Scorn'd  me  and  mine  ;  and  now  thy  pardon,  friend, 
For  thou  hast  ever  answer'd  courteously, 
And  wholly  bold  thou  art,  and  meek  withal 
As  any  of  Arthur's  best,  but,  being  knave,  1140 

Hast  mazed  my  wit :  I  marvel  what  thou  art." 

"Damsel,"  he  said,  "you  be  not  all  to  blame, 
Saving  that  you  mistrusted  our  good  King 
Would  handle  scorn,  or  yield  you,  asking,  one 
Not  fit  to  cope  your  quest.     You  said  your  say;  1145 

Mine  answer  was  my  deed.     Good  sooth  !  I  hold 
He  scarce  is  knight,  yea  but  half-man,  nor  meet 
To  fight  for  gentle  damsel,  he,  who  lets 
His  heart  be  stirr'd  with  any  foolish  heat 
At  any  gentle  damsel's  waywardness.  1150 

Shamed  ?  care  not  !  thy  foul  sayings  fought  for  me  : 
And  seeing  now  thy  words  are  fair,  methinks 
There  rides  no  knight,  not  Lancelot,  his  great  self, 
Hath  force  to  quell  me." 

Nigh  upon  that  hour 
When  the  lone  hern  forgets  his  melancholy,  1155 


40  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Lets  down  his  other  leg,  and  stretching  dreams 

Of  goodly  supper  in  the  distant  pool, 

Then  turn'd  the  noble  damsel  smiling  at  him, 

And  told  him  of  a  cavern  hard  at  hand, 

Where  bread  and  baken  meats  and  good  red  wine  1160 

Of  Southland,  which  the  Lady  Lyonors 

Had  sent  her  coming  champion,  waited  him. 

Anon  they  past  a  narrow  comb  wherein 
Were  slabs  of  rock  with  figures,  knights  on  horse 
Sculptured,  and  deckt  in  slowly-waning  hues.  1165 

"  Sir  Knave,  my  knight,  a  hermit  once  was  here, 
Whose  holy  hand  hath  fashion'd  on  the  rock 
The  war  of  Time  against  the  soul  of  man, 
And  yon  four  fools  have  suck'd  their  allegory 
From  these  damp  walls,  and  taken  but  the  form.  117° 

Know  ye  not  these  ?  "  and  Gareth  lookt  and  read  — 
In  letters  like  to  those  the  vexillary 
Hath  left  crag-carven  o'er  the  streaming  Gelt  — 
"  PHOSPHORUS  "  then  "  MERIDIES,"  —  "  HESPERUS  "  — 
"  Nox  "  —  "  MORS,"  beneath  five  figures,  armed  men,     1175 
Slab  after  slab,  their  faces  forward  all, 
And  running  down  the  Soul,  a  shape  that  fled 
With  broken  wings,  torn  raiment,  and  loose  hair, 
For  help  and  shelter  to  the  hermit's  cave. 
"Follow  the  faces,  and  we  find  it.     Look,  1180 

Who  comes  behind  ?  " 

For  one  —  delay'd  at  first 
Thro'  helping  back  the  dislocated  Kay 
To  Camelot,  then  by  what  thereafter  chanced, 
The  damsel's  headlong  error  thro'  the  wood  — 
Sir  Lancelot,  having  swum  the  river-loops —  1185 

His  blue  shield-lions  cover 'd  —  softly  drew 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  41 

Behind  the  twain,  and  when  he  saw  the  star 
Gleam,  on  Sir  Gareth's  turning  to  him,  cried, 
"  Stay,  felon  knight,  I  avenge  me  for  my  friend." 
And  Gareth  crying  prick'd  against  the  cry;  1190 

But  when  they  closed  —  in  a  moment — at  one  touch 
Of  that  skill'd  spear,  the  wonder  of  the  world  — 
Went  sliding  down  so  easily,  and  fell, 
That  when  he  found  the  grass  within  his  hands 
He  laugh'd;  the  laughter  jarr'd  upon  Lynette  :  1195 

Harshly  she  ask'd  him,  "  Shamed  and  overthrown, 
And  tumbled  back  into  the  kitchen-knave, 
Why  laugh  ye  ?  that  ye  blew  your  boast  in  vain  ?  " 
"  Nay,  noble  damsel,  but  that  I,  the  son 
Of  old  King  Lot  and  good  Queen  Bellicent,  1200 

And  victor  of  the  bridges  and  the  ford, 
And  knight  of  Arthur,  here  lie  thrown  by  whom 
I  know  not,  all  thro'  mere  unhappiness — 
Device  and  sorcery  and  unhappiness  — 
Out,  sword  ;   we  are  thrown  !  "     And  Lancelot  answer'd  : 
"Prince,  1205 

O  Gareth  —  thro'  the  mere  unhappiness 
Of  one  who  came  to  help  thee,  not  to  harm, 
Lancelot,  and  all  as  glad  to  find  thee  whole 
As  on  the  day  when  Arthur  knighted  him."  '! 

Then  Gareth  :  "  Thou  —  Lancelot !  —  thine  the  hand  1210 
That  threw  me  ?     An  some  chance  to  mar  the  boast 
Thy  brethren  of  thee  make  —  which  could  not  chance  — 
Had  sent  thee  down  before  a  lesser  spear, 
Shamed  had  I  been,  and  sad  —  O  Lancelot  —  thou !  " 

Whereat  the  maiden,  petulant :  "  Lancelot,  1215 

Why  came  ye  not,  when  call'd  ?  and  wherefore  now 


42  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Come  ye,  not  call'd  ?     I  gloried  in  my  knave, 

Who  being  still  rebuked  would  answer  still 

Courteous  as  any  knight  —  but  now,  if  knight, 

The  marvel  dies,  and  leaves  me  fool'd  and  trick'd,  1220 

And  only  wondering  wherefore  played  upon ; 

And  doubtful  whether  I  and  mine  be  scorn 'd. 

Where  should  be  truth  if  not  in  Arthur's  hall, 

In  Arthur's  presence?     Knight,  knave,  prince  and  fool, 

I  hate  thee  and  for  ever." 

And  Lancelot  said  :  1225 

"Blessed  be  thou,  Sir  Gareth!  knight  art  thou 
To  the  King's  best  wish.     O  damsel,  be  you  wise 
To  call  him  shamed  who  is  but  overthrown  ? 
Thrown  have  I  been,  nor  once,  but  many  a  time. 
Victor  from  vanquish'd  issues  at  the  last,  1230 

And  overthrower  from  being  overthrown. 
With  sword  we  have  not  striven ;  and  thy  good  horse 
And  thou  are  weary ;  yet  not  less  I  felt 
Thy  manhood  thro'  that  wearied  lance  of  thine. 
Well  hast  thou  done;  for  all  the  stream  is  freed,  1235 

And  thou  hast  wreak'd  his  justice  on  his  foes, 
And  when  reviled  hast  answer'd  graciously, 
And  makest  merry  when  overthrown.     Prince,  knight, 
Hail,  knight  and  prince,  and  of  our  Table  Round !  " 

And  then  when  turning  to  Lynette  he  told  1240 

The  tale  of  Gareth,  petulantly  she  said : 
"Ay,  well  —  ay,  well  —  for  worse  than  being  fool'd 
Of  others,  is  to  fool  one's  self.     A  cave, 
Sir  Lancelot,  is  hard  by,  with  meats  and  drinks 
And  forage  for  the  horse,  and  flint  for  fire.  1245 

But  all  about  it  flies  a  honeysuckle. 


GARETH   AND    LYNETTE  43 

Seek,  till  we  find."     And  when  they  sought  and  found, 

Sir  Gareth  drank  and  ate,  and  all  his  life 

Past  into  sleep  ;  on  whom  the  maiden  gazed  : 

"  Sound  sleep  be  thine  !  sound  cause  to  sleep  hast  thou.  1250 

Wake  lusty !     Seem  I  not  as  tender  to  him 

As  any  mother  ?     Ay,  but  such  a  one 

As  all  day  long  hath  rated  at  her  child, 

And  vext  his  day,  but  blesses  him  asleep  — 

Good  lord,  how  sweetly  smells  the  honeysuckle  1255 

In  the  hush'd  night,  as  if  the  world  were  one 

Of  utter  peace,  and  love,  and  gentleness  ! 

O  Lancelot,  Lancelot,"  —  and  she  clapt  her  hands  — 

"  Full  merry  am  I  to  find  my  goodly  knave 

Is  knight  and  noble.     See  now,  sworn  have  I,  1260 

Else  yon  black  felon  had  not  let  me  pass, 

To  bring  thee  back  to  do  the  battle  with  him. 

Thus  an  thou  goest,  he  will  fight  thee  first ; 

Who  doubts  thee  victor  ?  so  will  my  knight-knave 

Miss  the  full  flower  of  this  accomplishment."  1265 

Said  Lancelot :  "  Peradventure  he  you  name 
May  know  my  shield.     Let  Gareth,  an  he  will, 
Change  his  for  mine,  and  take  my  charger,  fresh, 
Not  to  be  spurr'd,  loving  the  battle  as  well 
As  he  that  rides  him."     "  Lancelot  like,"  she  said,  1270 

"  Courteous  in  this,  Lord  Lancelot,  as  in  all." 

And  Gareth,  wakening,  fiercely  clutch'd  the  shield : 
"  Ramp,  ye  lance-splintering  lions,  on  whom  all  spears 
Are  rotten  sticks  !  ye  seem  agape  to  roar ! 
Yea,  ramp  and  roar  at  leaving  of  your  lord  !  —  1275 

Care  not,  good  beasts,  so  well  I  care  for  you. 
O  noble  Lancelot,  from  my  hold  on  these 


44  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Streams  virtue  —  fire  —  thro'  one  that  will  not  shame 
Even  the  shadow  of  Lancelot  under  shield. 
Hence  :  let  us  go." 

Silent  the  silent  field  1280 

They  traversed.     Arthur's  Harp  tho'  summer-wan, 
In  counter  motion  to  the  clouds,  allured 
The  glance  of  Gareth  dreaming  on  his  liege. 
A  star  shot :  "  Lo,"  said  Gareth,  "  the  foe  falls  !  " 
An  owl  whoopt :  "  Hark  the  victor  pealing  there  !  "          1285 
Suddenly  she  that  rode  upon  his  left 
Clung  to  the  shield  that  Lancelot  lent  him,  crying : 
"  Yield,  yield  him  this  again  ;  't  is  he  must  fight  : 
I  curse  the  tongue  that  all  thro'  yesterday 
Reviled  thee,  and  hath  wrought  on  Lancelot  now  1290 

To  lend  thee  horse  and  shield :  wonders  ye  have  done ; 
Miracles  ye  cannot :  here  is  glory  enow 
In  having  flung  three  :  I  see  thee  maim'd, 
Mangled  :  I  swear  thou  canst  not  fling  the  fourth." 

"  And  wherefore,  damsel  ?  tell  me  all  ye  know.  1295 

You  cannot  scare  me ;  nor  rough  face,  or  voice, 
Brute  bulk  of  limb,  or  boundless  savagery 
Appal  me  from  the  quest." 

"  Nay,  prince,"  she  cried, 
"  God  wot,  I  never  look'd  upon  the  face, 
Seeing  he  never  rides  abroad  by  day ;  1300 

But  watch 'd  him  have  I  like  a  phantom  pass 
Chilling  the  night :  nor  have  I  heard  the  voice. 
Always  he  made  his  mouthpiece  of  a  page 
Who  came  and  went,  and  still  reported  him 
As  closing  in  himself  the  strength  of  ten,  1305 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  45 

And  when  his  anger  tare  him,  massacring 

Man,  woman,  lad,  and  girl  —  yea,  the  soft  babe! 

Some  hold  that  he  hath  swallow'd  infant  flesh, 

Monster !     O  prince,  I  went  for  Lancelot  first, 

The  quest  is  Lancelot's  :  give  him  back  the  shield."        1310 

Said  Gareth  laughing,  "  An  he  fight  for  this, 
Belike  he  wins  it  as  the  better  man  : 
Thus  —  and  not  else!" 

But  Lancelot  on  him  urged 
All  the  devisings  of  their  chivalry 

When  one  might  meet  a  mightier  than  himself;  1315 

How  best  to  manage  horse,  lance,  sword,  and  shield, 
And  so  fill  up  the  gap  where  force  might  fail 
With  skill  and  fineness.     Instant  were  his  words. 

Then  Gareth  :  "  Here  be  rules.     I  know  but  one  — 
To  dash  against  mine  enemy  and  to  win.  1320 

Yet  have  I  watch'd  thee  victor  in  the  joust, 
And  seen  thy  way."     "  Heaven  help  thee  !  "  sigh'd  Lynette. 

Then  for  a  space,  and  under  cloud  that  grew 
To  thunder-gloom  palling  all  stars,  they  rode 
In  converse  till  she  made  her  palfrey  halt,  1325 

Lifted  an  arm,  and  softly  whisper'd,  "  There." 
And  all  the  three  were  silent  seeing,  pitch'd 
Beside  the  Castle  Perilous  on  flat  field, 
A  huge  pavilion  like  a  mountain  peak 

Sunder  the  glooming  crimson  on  the  marge,  1330 

Black,  with  black  banner,  and  a  long  black  horn 
Beside  it  hanging ;  which  Sir  Gareth  graspt, 
And  so,  before  the  two  could  hinder  him, 


46  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Sent  all  his  heart  and  breath  thro'  all  the  horn. 

Echo'd  the  walls,  a  light  twinkled  ;  anon  1335 

Came  lights  and  lights,  and  once  again  he  blew; 

Whereon  were  hollow  tramplings  up  and  down 

And  muffled  voices  heard,  and  shadows  past ; 

Till  high  above  him,  circled  with  her  maids, 

The  Lady  Lyonors  at  a  window  stood,  1340 

Beautiful  among  lights,  and  waving  to  him 

White  hands  and  courtesy ;  but  when  the  prince 

Three  times  had  blown  —  after  long  hush  —  at  last  — 

The  huge  pavilion  slowly  yielded  up, 

Thro'  those  black  foldings,  that  which  housed  therein.    1345 

High  on  a  night-black  horse,  in  night-black  arms, 

With  white  breast-bone,  and  barren  ribs  of  Death, 

And  crown'd  with  fleshless  laughter  —  some  ten  steps  — 

In  the  half-light  —  thro'  the  dim  dawn  —  advanced 

The  monster,  and  then  paused,  and  spake  no  word.         1350 

But  Gareth  spake  and  all  indignantly : 
"  Fool,  for  thou  hast,  men  say,  the  strength  of  ten, 
Canst  thou  not  trust  the  limbs  thy  God  hath  given, 
But  must,  to  make  the  terror  of  thee  more, 
Trick  thyself  out  in  ghastly  imageries  1355 

Of  that  which  Life  hath  done  with,  and  the  clod, 
Less  dull  than  thou,  will  hide  with  mantling  flowers 
As  if  for  pity  ?  "     But  he  spake  no  word  ; 
Which  set  the  horror  higher  :  a  maiden  swoon'd ; 
The  Lady  Lyonors  wrung  her  hands  and  wept,  1360 

As  doom'd  to  be  the  bride  of  Night  and  Death ; 
Sir  Gareth's  head  prickled  beneath  his  helm  ; 
And  even  Sir  Lancelot  thro'  his  warm  blood  felt 
Ice  strike,  and  all  that  mark'd  him  were  aghast 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  47 

At  once  Sir  Lancelot's  charger  fiercely  neigh'd,  1365 

And  Death's  dark  war-horse  bounded  forward  with  him. 
Then  those  that  did  not  blink  the  terror  saw 
That  Death  was  cast  to  ground,  and  slowly  rose. 
But  with  one  stroke  Sir  Gareth  split  the  skull. 
Half  fell  to  right  and  half  to  left  and  lay.  1370 

Then  with  a  stronger  buffet  he  clove  the  helm 
As  throughly  as  the  skull ;  and  out  from  this 
Issued  the  bright  face  of  a  blooming  boy 
Fresh  as  a  flower  new-born,  and  crying,  "  Knight, 
Slay  me  not:  my  three  brethren  bade  me  do  it,  1375 

To  make  a  horror  all  about  the  house, 
And  stay  the  world  from  Lady  Lyonors ; 
They  never  dream'd  the  passes  would  be  past." 
Answer'd  Sir  Gareth  graciously  to  one 

Not  many  a  moon  his  younger,  "My  fair  child,  1380 

What  madness  made  thee  challenge  the  chief  knight 
Of  Arthur's  hall  ? "     "  Fair  Sir,  they  bade  me  do  it. 
They  hate  the  King  and  Lancelot,  the  King's  friend ; 
They  hoped  to  slay  him  somewhere  on  the  stream, 
They  never  dream'd  the  passes  could  be  past."  1385 

Then  sprang  the  happier  day  from  underground; 
And  Lady  Lyonors  and  her  house,  with  dance 
And  revel  and  song,  made  merry  over  Death, 
As  being  after  all  their  foolish  fears 

And  horrors  only  proven  a  blooming  boy.  1390 

So  large  mirth  lived,  and  Gareth  won  the  quest. 

And  he  that  told  the  tale  in  older  times 
Says  that  Sir  Gareth  wedded  Lyonors, 
But  he  that  told  it  later  says  Lynette. 


LANCELOT   AND   ELAINE 

Elaine  the  fair,  Elaine  the  lovable, 
Elaine,  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat, 
High  in  her  chamber  up  a  tower  to  the  east 
Guarded  the  sacred  shield  of  Lancelot; 
Which  first  she  placed  where  morning's  earliest  ray  5 

Might  strike  it,  and  awake  her  with  the  gleam; 
Then  fearing  rust  or  soilure  fashion'd  for  it 
A  case  of  silk,  and  braided  thereupon 
All  the  devices  blazon'd  on  the  shield 

In  their  own  tinct,  and  added,  of  her  wit,  10 

A  border  fantasy  of  branch  and  flower, 
And  yellow-throated  nestling  in  her  nest. 
Nor  rested  thus  content,  but  day  by  day, 
Leaving  her  household  and  good  father,  climb'd 
That  eastern  tower,  and  entering  barr'd  her  door,  15 

Stript  off  the  case,  and  read  the  naked  shield, 
Now  guess'd  a  hidden  meaning  in  his  arms, 
Now  made  a  pretty  history  to  herself 
Of  every  dint  a  sword  had  beaten  in  it, 
And  every  scratch  a  lance  had  made  upon  it,  20 

Conjecturing  when  and  where :  this  cut  is  fresh ; 
That  ten  years  back ;  this  dealt  him  at  Caerlyle ; 
That  at  Caerleon  ;  this  at  Camelot : 
And  ah,  God's  mercy,  what  a  stroke  was  there ! 
And  here  a  thrust  that  might  have  kill'd,  but  God  25 

Broke  the  strong  lance,  and  roll'd  his  enemy  down, 
And  saved  him:  so  she  lived  in  fantasy. 
49 


50  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

How  came  the  lily  maid  by  that  good  shield 
Of  Lancelot,  she  that  knew  not  even  his  name? 
He  left  it  with  her,  when  he  rode  to  tilt  30 

For  the  great  diamond  in  the  diamond  jousts, 
Which  Arthur  had  ordain'd,  and  by  that  name 
Had  named  them,  since  a  diamond  was  the  prize. 

For  Arthur,  long  before  they  crown'd  him  king, 
Roving  the  trackless  realms  of  Lyonnesse,  35 

Had  found  a  glen,  gray  boulder  and  black  tarn. 
A  horror  lived  about  the  tarn,  and  clave 
Like  its  own  mists  to  all  the  mountain  side : 
For  here  two  brothers,  one  a  king,  had  met 
And  fought  together ;  but  their  names  were  lost;  40 

And  each  had  slain  his  brother  at  a  blow; 
And  down  they  fell  and  made  the  glen  abhorr'd  : 
And  there  they  lay  till  all  their  bones  were  bleach'd, 
And  lichen'd  into  color  with  the  crags : 

And  he  that  once  was  king  had  on  a  crown  45 

Of  diamonds,  one  in  front  and  four  aside. 
And  Arthur  came,  and  laboring  up  the  pass, 
All  in  a  misty  moonshine,  unawares 
Had  trodden  that  crown'd  skeleton,  and  the  skull 
Brake  from  the  nape,  and  from  the  skull  the  crown  50 

Roll'd  into  light,  and  turning  on  its  rims 
Fled  like  a  glittering  rivulet  to  the  tarn: 
And  down  the  shingly  scaur  he  plunged,  and  caught, 
And  set  it  on  his  head,  and  in  his  heart 
Heard  murmurs,  "  Lo,  thou  likewise  shalt  be  king."  55 

Thereafter,  when  a  king,  he  had  the  gems 
Pluck'd  from  the  crown,  and  show'd  them  to  his  knights, 
Saying:  "These  jewels,  whereupon  I  chanced 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  51 

Divinely,  are  the  kingdom's,  not  the  King's  — 

For  public  use  :  henceforward  let  there  be,  60 

Once  every  year,  a  joust  for  one  of  these : 

For  so  by  nine  years'  proof  we  needs  must  learn 

Which  is  our  mightiest,  and  ourselves  shall  grow 

In  use  of  arms  and  manhood,  till  we  drive 

The  heathen,  who,  some  say,  shall  rule  the  land  65 

Hereafter,  which  God  hinder  !  "     Thus  he  spoke  : 

And  eight  years  past,  eight  jousts  had  been,  and  still 

Had  Lancelot  won  the  diamond  of  the  year, 

With  purpose  to  present  them  to  the  Queen 

When  all  were  won;  but,  meaning  all  at  once  70 

To  snare  her  royal  fancy  with  a  boon 

Worth  half  her  realm,  had  never  spoken  word. 

Now  for  the  central  diamond  and  the  last 
And  largest,  Arthur,  holding  then  his  court 
Hard  on  the  river  nigh  the  place  which  now  75 

Is  this  world's  hugest,  let  proclaim  a  joust 
At  Camelot,  and  when  the  time  drew  nigh 
Spake  —  for  she  had  been  sick — to  Guinevere: 
"Are  you  so  sick,  my  Queen,  you  cannot  move 
To  these  fair  jousts?"   "Yea,  lord,"  she  said,  "ye  know  it." 
"Then  will  ye  miss,"  he  answer'd,  "the  great  deeds  81 

Of  Lancelot,  and  his  prowess  in  the  lists, 
A  sight  ye  love  to  look  on."     And  the  Queen 
Lifted  her  eyes,  and  they  dwelt  languidly 
On  Lancelot,  where  he  stood  beside  the  King.  85 

He,  thinking  that  he  read  her  meaning  there, 
"  Stay  with  me,  I  am  sick ;  my  love  is  more 
Than  many  diamonds,"  yielded;  and  a  heart 
Love-loyal  to  the  least  wish  of  the  Queen  — 
However  much  he  yearn 'd  to  make  complete  90 


52  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

The  tale  of  diamonds  for  his  destined  boon  — 

Urged  him  to  speak  against  the  truth,  and  say, 

"  Sir  King,  mine  ancient  wound  is  hardly  whole, 

And  lets  me  from  the  saddle ;"  and  the  King 

Glanced  first  at  him,  then  her,  and  went  his  way.  95 

No  sooner  gone  than  suddenly  she  began : 

"  To  blame,  my  lord  Sir  Lancelot,  much  to  blame  I 
Why  go  ye  not  to  these  fair  jousts  ?  the  knights 
Are  half  of  them  our  enemies,  and  the  crowd 
Will  murmur,  '  Lo  the  shameless  ones,  who  take  100 

Their  pastime  now  the  trustful  King  is  gone ! ' ' 
Then  Lancelot,  vext  at  having  lied  in  vain: 
"Are  ye  so  wise  ?  ye  were  not  once  so  wise, 
My  Queen,  that  summer  when  ye  loved  me  first. 
Then  of  the  crowd  ye  took  no  more  account  105 

Than  of  the  myriad  cricket  of  the  mead, 
When  its  own  voice  clings  to  each  blade  of  grass, 
And  every  voice  is  nothing.     As  to  knights, 
Them  surely  can  I  silence  with  all  ease. 
But  now  my  loyal  worship  is  allow'd  no 

Of  all  men  :  many  a  bard,  without  offence, 
Has  link'd  our  names  together  in  his  lay, 
Lancelot,  the  flower  of  bravery,  Guinevere, 
The  pearl  of  beauty ;  and  our  knights  at  feast 
Have  pledged  us  in  this  union,  while  the  King  115 

Would  listen  smiling.     How  then  ?  is  there  more  ? 
Has  Arthur  spoken  aught  ?  or  would  yourself, 
Now  weary  of  my  service  and  devoir, 
Henceforth  be  truer  to  your  faultless  lord  ? " 

She  broke  into  a  little  scornful  laugh :  120 

"Arthur,  my  lord,  Arthur,  the  faultless  King, 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  53 

That  passionate  perfection,  my  good  lord  — 

But  who  can  gaze  upon  the  sun  in  heaven? 

He  never  spake  word  of  reproach  to  me, 

He  never  had  a  glimpse  of  mine  untruth,  125 

He  cares  not  for  me  :  only  here  to-day 

There  gleamed  a  vague  suspicion  in  his  eyes  : 

Some  meddling  rogue  has  tamper'd  with  him  —  else 

Rapt  in  this  fancy  of  his  Table  Round, 

And  swearing  men  to  vows  impossible,  130 

To  make  them  like  himself ;  but,  friend,  to  me 

He  is  all  fault  who  hath  no  fault  at  all: 

For  who  loves  me  must  have  a  touch  of  earth; 

The  low  sun  makes  the  color:  I  am  yours, 

Nor  Arthur's,  as  ye  know,  save  by  the  bond.  135 

And  therefore  hear  my  words :  go  to  the  jousts : 

The  tiny-trumpeting  gnat  can  break  our  dream 

When  sweetest ;  and  the  vermin  voices  here 

May  buzz  so  loud  —  we  scorn  them,  but  they  sting." 

Then  answer'd  Lancelot,  the  chief  of  knights :  140 

"And  with  what  face,  after  my  pretext  made, 
Shall  I  appear,  O  Queen,  at  Camelot,  I 
Before  a  king  who  honors  his  own  word 
As  if  it  were  his  God's  ?  " 

"  Yea,"  said  the  Queen, 

"A  moral  child  without  the  craft  to  rule,  145 

Else  had  he  not  lost  me :  but  listen  to  me, 
If  I  must  find  you  wit :  we  hear  it  said 
That  men  go  down  before  your  spear  at  a  touch, 
But  knowing  you  are  Lancelot ;  your  great  name, 
This  conquers  :  hide  it  therefore  ;  go  unknown  :  150 

Win !  by  this  kiss  you  will :  and  our  true  King 


54  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Will  then  allow  your  pretext,  O  my  knight, 

As  all  for  glory  ;  for  to  speak  him  true, 

Ye  know  right  well,  how  meek  soe'er  he  seem, 

No  keener  hunter  after  glory  breathes.  155 

He  loves  it  in  his  knights  more  than  himself ; 

They  prove  to  him  his  work :  win  and  return." 

Then  got  Sir  Lancelot  suddenly  to  horse, 
Wroth  at  himself.     Not  willing  to  be  known, 
He  left  the  barren-beaten  thoroughfare,  160 

Chose  the  green  path  that  show'd  the  rarer  foot, 
And  there  among  the  solitary  downs, 
Full  often  lost  in  fancy,  lost  his  way; 
Till  as  he  traced  a  faintly-shadow'd  track, 
That  all  in  loops  and  links  among  the  dales  165 

Ran  to  the  Castle  of  Astolat,  he  saw 
Fired  from  the  west,  far  on  a  hill,  the  towers. 
Thither  he  made,  and  blew  the  gateway  horn. 
Then  came  an  old,  dumb,  myriad-wrinkled  man, 
Who  let  him  into  lodging  and  disarm'd.  170 

And  Lancelot  marvell'd  at  the  wordless  man ; 
And  issuing  found  the  Lord  of  Astolat 
With  two  strong  sons,  Sir  Torre  and  Sir  Lavaine, 
Moving  to  meet  him  in  the  castle  court ; 
And  close  behind  them  stept  the  lily  maid  175 

Elaine,  his  daughter :  mother  of  the  house 
There  was  not.     Some  light  jest  among  them  rose 
With  laughter  dying  down  as  the  great  knight 
Approach'd  them  ;  then  the  Lord  of  Astolat : 
"  Whence  comest  thou  my  guest,  and  by  what  name         180 
Livest  between  the  lips  ?  for  by  thy  state 
And  presence  I  might  guess  thee  chief  of  those, 
After  the  King,  who  eat  in  Arthur's  halls. 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  55 

Him  have  I  seen :  the  rest,  his  Table  Round, 

Known  as  they  are,  to  me  they  are  unknown."  185 

Then  answer'd  Lancelot,  the  chief  of  knights  : 
"  Known  am  I,  and  of  Arthur's  hall,  and  known, 
What  I  by  mere  mischance  have  brought,  my  shield. 
But  since  I  go  to  joust  as  one  unknown 
At  Camelot  for  the  diamond,  ask  me  not ;  190 

Hereafter  ye  shall  know  me  —  and  the  shield  — 
I  pray  you  lend  me  one,  if  such  you  have, 
Blank,  or  at  least  with  some  device  not  mine." 

Then  said  the  Lord  of  Astolat :  "  Here  is  Torre's  : 
Hurt  in  his  first  tilt  was  my  son,  Sir  Torre ;  195 

And  so,  God  wot,  his  shield  is  blank  enough. 
His  ye  can  have."     Then  added  plain  Sir  Torre, 
"  Yea,  since  I  cannot  use  it,  ye  may  have  it." 
Here  laugh'd  the  father  saying :  "  Fie,  Sir  Churl, 
Is  that  an  answer  for  a  noble  knight  ?  200 

Allow  him  !  but  Lavaine,  my  younger  here, 
He  is  so  full  of  lustihood,  he  will  ride, 
Joust  for  it,  and  win,  and  bring  it  in  an  hour, 
And  set  it  in  this  damsel's  golden  hair, 
To  make  her  thrice  as  wilful  as  before."  205 

"  Nay,  father,  nay,  good  father,  shame  me  not 
Before  this  noble  knight,"  said  young  Lavaine, 
"  For  nothing.     Surely  I  but  play'd  on  Torre : 
He  seem'd  so  sullen,  vext  he  could  not  go : 
A  jest,  no  more !  for,  knight,  the  maiden  dreamt  210 

That  some  one  put  this  diamond  in  her  hand, 
And  that  it  was  too  slippery  to  be  held, 
And  slipt  and  fell  into  some  pool  or  stream, 


56  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

The  castle-well,  belike ;  and  then  I  said 

That  if  I  went  and  if\  fought  and  won  it —  215 

But  all  was  jest  and  joke  among  ourselves  — 

Then  must  she  keep  it  safelier.     All  was  jest. 

But,  father,  give  me  leave,  and  if  he  will, 

To  ride  to  Camelot  with  this  noble  knight : 

Win  shall  I  not,  but  do  my  best  to  win ;  220 

Young  as  I  am,  yet  would  I  do  my  best." 

"  So  ye  will  grace  me,"  answer'd  Lancelot, 
Smiling  a  moment,  "  with  your  fellowship 
O'er  these  waste  downs  whereon  I  lost  myself, 
Then  were  I  glad  of  you  as  guide  and  friend  :  225 

And  you  shall  win  this  diamond, — as  I  hear, 
It  is  a  fair  large  diamond,  —  if  ye  may, 
And  yield  it  to  this  maiden,  if  ye  will." 
"A  fair  large  diamond,"  added  plain  Sir  Torre, 
"Such  be  for  queens,  and  not  for  simple  maids."  230 

Then  she,  who  held  her  eyes  upon  the  ground, 
Elaine,  and  heard  her  name  so  tost  about, 
Flush'd  slightly  at  the  slight  disparagement 
Before  the  stranger  knight,  who,  looking  at  her, 
Full  courtly,  yet  not  falsely,  thus  return'd  :  235 

"  If  what  is  fair  be  but  for  what  is  fair, 
And  only  queens  are  to  be  counted  so, 
Rash  were  my  judgment  then,  who  deem  this  maid 
Might  wear  as  fair  a  jewel  as  is  on  earth, 
Not  violating  the  bond  of  like  to  like."  240 

He  spoke  and  ceased :  the  lily  maid  Elaine, 
Won  by  the  mellow  voice  before  she  look'd, 
Lifted  her  eyes  and  read  his  lineaments. 
The  great  and  guilty  love  he  bare  the  Queen, 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  57 

In  battle  with  the  love  he  bare  his  lord,  245 

Had  marr'd  his  face,  and  mark'd  it  ere  his  time. 

Another  sinning  on  such  heights  with  one, 

The  flower  of  all  the  west  and  all  the  world, 

Had  been  the  sleeker  for  it  ;  but  in  him 

His  mood  was  often  like  a  fiend,  and  rose  250 

And  drove  him  into  wastes  and  solitudes 

For  agony,  who  was  yet  a  living  soul.  \ 

Marr'd  as  he  was,  he  seem'd  the  goodliest  man 

That  ever  among  ladies  ate  in  hall, 

And  noblest,  when  she  lifted  up  her  eyes.  255 

However  marr'd,  of  more  than  twice  her  years, 

Seam'd  with  an  ancient  sword-cut  on  the  cheek, 

And  bruised  and  bronzed,  she  lifted  up  her  eyes 

And  loved  him,  with  that  love  which  was  her  doom. 


Then  the  great  knight,  the  darling  of  the  court,  260 

Loved  of  the  loveliest,  into  that  rude  hall 
Stept  with  all  grace,  and  not  with  half  disdain 
Hid  under  grace,  as  in  a  smaller  time, 
But  kindly  man  moving  among  his  kind  : 
Whom  they  with  meats  and  vintage  of  their  best  265 

And  talk  and  minstrel  melody  entertain'd. 
And  much  they  ask'd  of  court  and  Table  Round 
And  ever  well  and  readily  answer'd  he  ; 
But  Lancelot,  when  they  glanced  at  Guinevere, 
Suddenly  speaking  of  the  wordless  man,  270 

Heard  from  the  baron  that,  ten  years  before, 
The  heathen  caught  and  reft  him  of  his  tongue. 
"He  learnt  and  warn'd  me  of  their  fierce  design 
Against  my  house,  and  him  they  caught  and  maim'd  ; 
But  I,  my  sons,  and  little  daughter  fled  275 

From  bonds  or  death,  and  dwelt  among  the  woods 


58  IDYLLS  OF  THE   KING 

By  the  great  river  in  a  boatman's  hut. 

Dull  days  were  those,  till  our  good  Arthur  broke 

The  Pagan  yet  once  more  on  Badon  hill." 

"O  there,  great  lord,  doubtless,"  Lavaine  said,  rapt      280 
By  all  the  sweet  and  sudden  passion  of  youth 
Toward  greatness  in  its  elder,  "you  have  fought. 
O  tell  us  —  for  we  live  apart  —  you  know 
Of  Arthur's  glorious  wars."     And  Lancelot  spoke 
And  answer'd  him  at  full,  as  having  been  285 

With  Arthur  in  the  fight  which  all  day  long 
Rang  by  the  white  mouth  of  the  violent  Glem ; 
And  in  the  four  loud  battles  by  the  shore 
Of  Duglas ;  that  on  Bassa ;  then  the  war 
That  thunder'd  in  and  out  the  gloomy  skirts  290 

Of  Celidon  the  forest ;  and  again 
By  Castle  Gurnion,  where  the  glorious  King 
Had  on  his  cuirass  worn  our  Lady's  Head, 
Carved  of  one  emerald  centred  in  a  sun 
Of  silver  rays,  that  lighten'd  as  he  breathed;  295 

And  at  Caerleon  had  he  helped  his  lord, 
When  the  strong  neighings  of  the  wild  white  Horse 
Set  every  gilded  parapet  shuddering ; 
And  up  in  Agned-Cathregonion  too, 

And  down  the  waste  sand-shores  of  Trath  Treroit,  300 

Where  many  a  heathen  fell ;  "and  on  the  mount 
Of  Badon  I  myself  beheld  the  King 
Charge  at  the  head  of  all  his  Table  Round, 
And  all  his  legion  crying  Christ  and  him, 
And  brake  them;  and  I  saw  him,  after,  stand  305 

High  on  a  heap  of  slain,  from  spur  to  plume 
Red  as  the  rising  sun  with  heathen  blood, 
And  seeing  me,  with  a  great  voice  he  cried, 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  59 

'They  are  broken,  they  are  broken!'  for  the  King, 

However  mild  he  seems  at  home,  nor  cares  310 

For  triumph  in  our  mimic  wars,  the  jousts — 

For  if  his  own  knight  cast  him  down,  he  laughs, 

Saying  his  knights  are  better  men  than  he  — 

Yet  in  this  heathen  war  the  fire  of  God 

Fills  him  :  I  never  saw  his  like;  there  lives  315 

No  greater  leader." 

While  he  utter'd  this, 
Low  to  her  own  heart  said  the  lily  maid, 
"Save  your  great  self,  fair  lord  ;"  and  when  he  fell 
From  talk  of  war  to  traits  of  pleasantry — 
Being  mirthful  he,  but  in  a  stately  kind —  320 

She  still  took  note  that  when  the  living  smile 
Died  from  his  lips,  across  him  came  a  cloud 
Of  melancholy  severe,  from  which  again, 
Whenever  in  her  hovering  to  and  fro 

The  lily  maid  had  striven  to  make  him  cheer,  325 

There  brake  a  sudden-beaming  tenderness 
Of  manners  and  of  nature:  and  she  thought 
That  all  was  nature,  all,  perchance,  for  her. 
And  all  night  long  his  face  before  her  lived, 
As  when  a  painter,  poring  on  a  face,  330 

Divinely  thro'  all  hindrance  finds  the  man 
Behind  it,  and  so  paints  him  that  his  face, 
The  shape  and  color  of  a  mind  and  life, 
Lives  for  his  children,  ever  at  its  best 

And  fullest;  so  the  face  before  her  lived,  335 

Dark-splendid,  speaking  in  the  silence,  full 
Of  noble  things,  and  held  her  from  her  sleep, 
Till  rathe  she  rose,  half-cheated  in  the  thought 
She  needs  must  bid  farewell  to  sweet  Lavaine. 


60  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

First  as  in  fear,  step  after  step,  she  stole  340 

Down  the  long  tower-stairs,  hesitating  : 

Anon,  she  heard  Sir  Lancelot  cry  in  the  court, 

"This  shield,  my  friend,  where  is  it?"  and  Lavaine 

Past  inward,  as  she  came  from  out  the  tower. 

There  to  his  proud  horse  Lancelot  turn'd,  and  smooth'd  345 

The  glossy  shoulder,  humming  to  himself. 

Half-envious  of  the  flattering  hand,  she  drew 

Nearer  and  stood.     He  look'd,  and,  more  amazed 

Than  if  seven  men  had  set  upon  him,  saw 

The  maiden  standing  in  the  dewy  light.  350 

He  had  not  dream'd  she  was  so  beautiful. 

Then  came  on  him  a  sort  of  sacred  fear, 

For  silent,  tho'  he  greeted  her,  she  stood 

Rapt  on  his  face  as  if  it  were  a  god's. 

Suddenly  flash'd  on  her  a  wild  desire  355 

That  he  should  wear  her  favor  at  the  tilt. 

She  braved  a  riotous  heart  in  asking  for  it. 

"Fair  lord,  whose  name  I  know  not — noble  it  is 

I  well  believe,  the  noblest  —  will  you  wear 

My  favor  at  this  tourney  ?  "    "  Nay,"  said  he,  360 

"  Fair  lady,  since  I  never  yet  have  worn 

Favor  of  any  lady  in  the  lists. 

Such  is  my  wont,  as  those  who  know  me  know." 

"  Yea,  so,"  she  answer'd  ;  "  then  in  wearing  mine 

Needs  must  be  lesser  likelihood,  noble  lord,  365 

That  those  who  know  should  know  you."     And  he  turn'd 

Her  counsel  up  and  down  within  his  mind, 

And  found  it  true,  and  answer'd  :  "  True,  my  child. 

Well,  I  will  wear  it :  fetch  it  out  to  me : 

What  is  it  ?  "  and  she  told  him,  "A  red  sleeve  37Q 

Broider'd  with  pearls,"  and  brought  it :  then  he  bound 

Her  token  on  his  helmet,  with  a  smile 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE  6l 

Saying,  "  I  never  yet  have  done  so  much 

For  any  maiden  living,"  and  the  blood 

Sprang  to  her  face  and  fill'd  her  with  delight ;  375 

But  left  her  all  the  paler  when  Lavaine 

Returning  brought  the  yet-unblazon'd  shield, 

His  brother's  ;  which  he  gave  to  Lancelot, 

Who  parted  with  his  own  to  fair  Elaine : 

"  Do  me  this  grace,  my  child,  to  have  my  shield  380 

In  keeping  till  I  come."     "A  grace  to  me," 

She  answer'd,  "  twice  to-day.     I  am  your  squire  1  " 

Whereat  Lavaine  said  laughingly:  "Lily  maid, 

For  fear  our  people  call  you  lily  maid 

In  earnest,  let  me  bring  your  color  back ;  385 

Once,  twice,  and  thrice  :  now  get  you  hence  to  bed  : " 

So  kiss'd  her,  and  Sir  Lancelot  his  own  hand, 

And  thus  they  moved  away :  she  stay'd  a  minute, 

Then  made  a  sudden  step  to  the  gate,  and  there  — 

Her  bright  hair  blown  about  the  serious  face  390 

Yet  rosy  kindled  with  her  brother's  kiss  — 

Paused  by  the  gateway,  standing  near  the  shield 

In  silence,  while  she  watch'd  their  arms  far-off 

Sparkle,  until  they  dipt  below  the  downs. 

Then  to  her  tower  she  climb'd,  and  took  the  shield,          395 

There  kept  it,  and  so  lived  in  fantasy. 

Meanwhile  the  new  companions  past  away 
Far  o'er  the  long  backs  of  the  bushless  downs, 
To  where  Sir  Lancelot  knew  there  lived  a  knight 
Not  far  from  Camelot,  now  for  forty  years  400 

A  hermit,  who  had  pray'd,  labor'd  and  pray'd, 
And  ever  laboring  had  scoop'd  himself 
In  the  white  rock  a  chapel  and  a  hall 
On  massive  columns,  like  a  shore-cliff  cave, 


62  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

And  cells  and  chambers  :  all  were  fair  and  dry ;  405 

The  green  light  from  the  meadows  underneath 

Struck  up  and  lived  along  the  milky  roofs^ 

And  in  the  meadows  tremulous  aspen-trees 

And  poplars  made  a  noise  of  falling  showers. 

And  thither  wending  there  that  night  they  bode.  410 

But  when  the  next  day  broke  from  underground, 
And  shot  red  fire  and  shadows  thro'  the  cave, 
They  rose,  heard  mass,  broke  fast,  and  rode  away. 
Then  Lancelot  saying,  "  Hear,  but  hold  my  name 
Hidden,  you  ride  with  Lancelot  of  the  Lake,"  415 

Abash'd  Lavaine,  whose  instant  reverence, 
Dearer  to  true  young  hearts  than  their  own  praise, 
But  left  him  leave  to  stammer,  "  Is  it  indeed  ?  " 
And  after  muttering,  "  The  great  Lancelot," 
At  last  he  got  his  breath  and  answer'd  :  "One,  420 

One  have  I  seen  —  that  other,  our  liege  lord, 
The  dread  Pendragon,  Britain's  King  of  kings, 
Of  whom  the  people  talk  mysteriously, 
He  will  be  there  —  then  were  I  stricken  blind 
That  minute,  I  might  say  that  I  had  seen."  425 

So  spake  Lavaine,  and  when  they  reached  the  lists 
By  Camelot  in  the  meadow,  let  his  eyes 
Run  thro'  the  peopled  gallery  which  half  round 
Lay  like  a  rainbow  fallen  upon  the  grass, 
Until  they  found  the  clear-faced  King,  who  sat  430 

Robed  in  red  samite,  easily  to  be  known, 
Since  to  his  crown  the  golden  dragon  clung, 
And  down  his  robe  the  dragon  writhed  in  gold, 
And  from  the  carven-work  behind  him  crept 
Two  dragons  gilded,  sloping  down  to  make  435 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  63 

Arms  for  his  chair,  while  all  the  rest  of  them 

Thro'  knots  and  loops  and  folds  innumerable 

Fled  ever  thro'  the  woodwork,  till  they  found 

The  new  design  wherein  they  lost  themselves, 

Yet  with  all  ease,  so  tender  was  the  work  :  440 

And,  in  the  costly  canopy  o'er  him  set, 

Blazed  the  last  diamond  of  the  nameless  king. 

Then  Lancelot  answer'd  young  Lavaine  and  said : 
"  Me  you  call  great :  mine  is  the  firmer  seat, 
The  truer  lance  :  but  there  is  many  a  youth  445 

Now  crescent,  who  will  come  to  all  I  am 
And  overcome  it ;  and  in  me  there  dwells 
No  greatness,  save  it  be  some  far-off  touch 
Of  greatness  to  know  wfell  I  am  not  great : 
There  is  the  man."     And  Lavaine  gaped  upon  him  450 

As  on  a  thing  miraculous,  and  anon 
The  trumpets  blew ;  and  then  did  either  side, 
They  that  assail'd,  and  they  that  held  the  lists, 
Set  lance  in  rest,  strike  spur,  suddenly  move, 
Meet  in  the  midst,  and  there  so  furiously  455 

Shock  that  a  man  far-off  might  well  perceive, 
If  any  man  that  day  were  left  afield, 
The  hard  earth  shake,  and  a  low  thunder  of  arms. 
And  Lancelot  bode  a  little,  till  he  saw 
Which  were  the  weaker ;  then  he  hurl'd  into  it  460 

Against  the  stronger:  little  need  to  speak 
Of  Lancelot  in  his  glory !     King,  duke,  earl, 
Count,  baron  —  whom  he  smote,  he  overthrew. 

But  in  the  field  were  Lancelot's  kith  and  kin, 
Ranged  with  the  Table  Round  that  held  the  lists,  465 

Strong  men,  and  wrathful  that  a  stranger  knight 


64  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Should  do  and  almost  overdo  the  deeds 

Of  Lancelot ;  and  one  said  to  the  other,  "  Lo  ! 

What  is  he  ?     I  do  not  mean  the  force  alone  — 

The  grace  and  versatility  of  the  man  !  470 

Is  it  not  Lancelot  ?  "     "  When  has  Lancelot  worn 

Favor  of  any  lady  in  the  lists  ? 

Not  such  his  wont,  as  we  that  know  him  know.'; 

"  How  then  ?  who  then  ?  "  a  fury  seized  them  all, 

A  fiery  family  passion  for  the  name  475 

Of  Lancelot,  and  a  glory  one  with  theirs. 

They  couch'd  their  spears  and  prick'd  their  steeds,  and  thus, 

Their  plumes  driven  backward  by  the  wind  they  made 

In  moving,  all  together  down  upon  him 

Bare,  as  a  wild  wave  in  the  wide  North  Sea,  480 

Green-glimmering  toward  the  summit,  bears,  with  all 

Its  stormy  crests  that  smoke  against  the  skies, 

Down  on  a  bark,  and  overbears  the  bark 

And  him  that  helms  it ;  so  they  overbore 

Sir  Lancelot  and  his  charger,  and  a  spear  485 

Down-glancing  lamed  the  charger,  and  a  spear 

Prick'd  sharply  his  own  cuirass,  and  the  head 

Pierced  thro'  his  side,  and  there  snapt  and  remain'd. 

Then  Sir  Lavaine  did  well  and  worshipfully : 
He  bore  a  knight  of  old  repute  to  the  earth,  490 

And  brought  his  horse  to  Lancelot  where  he  lay. 
He  up  the  side,  sweating  with  agony,  got, 
But  thought  to  do  while  he  might  yet  endure, 
And  being  lustily  holpen  by  the  rest, 

His  party,  —  tho'  it  seem'd  half-miracle  495 

To  those  he  fought  with,  —  drave  his  kith  and  kin, 
And  all  the  Table  Round  that  held  the  lists, 
Back  to  the  barrier ;  then  the  trumpets  blew 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE  65 

Proclaiming  his  the  prize  who  wore  the  sleeve 

Of  scarlet  and  the  pearls  ;  and  all  the  knights,  500 

His  party,  cried,  "Advance  and  take  thy  prize 

The  diamond  ;  "  but  he  answer'd  :  "  Diamond  me 

No  diamonds  !  for  God's  love,  a  little  air ! 

Prize  me  no  prizes,  for  my  prize  is  death ! 

Hence  will  I,  and  I  charge  you,  follow  me  not."  505 

He  spoke,  and  vanish'd  suddenly  from  the  field 

With  young  Lavaine  into  the  poplar  grove. 

There  from  his  charger  down  he  slid,  and  sat, 

Gasping  to  Sir  Lavaine,  "  Draw  the  lance-head." 

"Ah,  my  sweet  lord  Sir  Lancelot,"  said  Lavaine,  510 

"I  dread  me,  if  I  draw  it,  you  will  die." 

But  he,  "  I  die  already  with  it :  draw  — 

Draw,"  —  and  Lavaine  drew,  and  Sir  Lancelot  gave 

A  marvellous  great  shriek  and  ghastly  groan, 

And  half  his  blood  burst  forth,  and  down  he  sank  515 

For  the  pure  pain,  and  wholly  swoon'd  away. 

Then  jame  the  hermit  out  and  bare  him  in, 

There  stanch'd  his  wound ;  and  there,  in  daily  doubt 

Whether  to  live  or  die,  for  many  a  week 

Hid  from  the  wild  world's  rumor  by  the  grove  /     520 

Of  poplars  with  their  noise  of  falling  showers, 

And  ever-tremulous  aspen-trees,  he  lay. 

But  on  that  day  when  Lancelot  fled  the  lists, 
His  party,  knights  of  utmost  North  and  West, 
Lords  of  waste  marshes,  kings  of  desolate  isles,  525 

Came  round  their  great  Pendragon,  saying  to  him, 
"  Lo,  Sire,  our  knight,  thro'  whom  we  won  the  day, 
Hath  gone  sore  wounded,  and  hath  left  his  prize 
Untaken,  crying  that  his  prize  is  death." 


66  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

"  Heaven  hinder,"  said  the  King,  "  that  such  an  one,        530 

So  great  a  knight  as  we  have  seen  to-day  — 

He  seem'd  to  me  another  Lancelot  — 

Yea,  twenty  times  I  thought  him  Lancelot  — 

He  must  not  pass  uncared  for.     Wherefore  rise, 

0  Gawain,  and  ride  forth  and  find  the  knight.  535 
Wounded  and  wearied,  needs  must  he  be  near. 

1  charge  you  that  you  get  at  once  to  horse. 

And,  knights  and  kings,  there  breathes  not  one  of  you 

Will  deem  this  prize  of  ours  is  rashly  given : 

His  prowess  was  too  wondrous.     We  will  do  him  540 

No  customary  honor  :  since  the  knight 

Came  not  to  us,  of  us  to  claim  the  prize, 

Ourselves  will  send  it  after.     Rise  and  take 

This  diamond,  and  deliver  it,  and  return, 

And  bring  us  where  he  is,  and  how  he  fares,  545 

And  cease  not  from  your  quest  until  ye  find." 

So  saying,  from  the  carven  flower  above, 
To  which  it  made  a  restless  heart,  he  took 
And  gave  the  diamond  :  then  from  where  he  sat 
At  Arthur's  right,  with  smiling  face  arose,  550 

With  smiling  face  and  frowning  heart,  a  prince 
In  the  mid  might  and  flourish  of  his  May, 
Gawain,  surnamed  the  Courteous,  fair  and  strong, 
And  after  Lancelot,  Tristram,  and  Geraint, 
And  Gareth,  a  good  knight,  but  therewithal  555 

Sir  Modred's  brother,  and  the  child  of  Lot, 
Nor  often  loyal  to  his  word,  and  now 
Wroth  that  the  King's  command  to  sally  forth 
In  quest  of  whom  he  knew  not,  made  him  leave 
The  banquet  and  concourse  of  knights  and  kings.  560 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE  6/ 

So  all  in  wrath  he  got  to  horse  and  went ; 
While  Arthur  to  the  banquet,  dark  in  mood, 
Past,  thinking,  "  Is  it  Lancelot  who  hath  "come 
Despite  the  wound  he  spake  of,  all  for  gain 
Of  glory,  and  hath  added  wound  to  wound,  565 

And  ridden  away  to  die  ?  "     So  fear'd  the  King, 
And,  after  two  days'  tarriance  there,  return'd. 
Then  when  he  saw  the  Queen,  embracing  ask'd, 
"  Love,  are  you  yet  so  sick  ?  "     "  Nay,  lord,"  she  said. 
"And  where  is  Lancelot  ?  "     Then  the  Queen  amazed,      570 
"  Was  he  not  with  you  ?  won  he  not  your  prize  ?  " 
"  Nay,  but  one  like  him."     "  Why,  that  like  was  he." 
And  when  the  King  demanded  how  she  knew, 
Said  :  "  Lord,  no  sooner  had  ye  parted  from  us 
Than  Lancelot  told  me  of  a  common  talk  575 

That  men  went  down  before  his  spear  at  a  touch, 
But  knowing  he  was  Lancelot ;  his  great  name 
Conquer'd ;  and  therefore  would  he  hide  his  name 
From  all  men,  even  the  King,  and  to  this  end 
Had  made  the  pretext  of  a  hindering  wound,  580 

That  he  might  joust  unknown  of  all,  and  learn 
If  his  old  prowess  were  in  aught  decay'd  ; 
And  added,  '  Our  true  Arthur,  when  he  learns, 
Will  well  allow  my  pretext,  as  for  gain 
Of  purer  glory.' " 

Then  replied  the  King :  585 

"  Far  lovelier  in  our  Lancelot  had  it  been, 
In  lieu  of  idly  dallying  with  the  truth, 
To  have  trusted  me  as  he  hath  trusted  thee. 
Surely  his  King  and  most  familiar  friend 
Might  well  have  kept  his  secret.     True,  indeed,  590 


68  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Albeit  I  know  my  knights  fantastical, 

So  fine  a  fear  in  our  large  Lancelot 

Must  needs  have  moved  my  laughter :  now  remains 

But  little  cause  for  laughter  :  his  own  kin  — 

111  news,  my  Queen,  for  all  who  love  him,  this !  —  595 

His  kith  and  kin,  not  knowing,  set  upon  him ; 

So  that  he  went  sore  wounded  from  the  field. 

Yet  good  news  too ;  for  goodly  hopes  are  mine 

That  Lancelot  is  no  more  a  lonely  heart. 

He  wore,  against  his  wont,  upon  his  helm  600 

A  sleeve  of  scarlet,  broider'd  with  great  pearls, 

Some  gentle  maiden's  gift." 

"  Yea,  lord,"  she  said, 

"  Thy  hopes  are  mine,"  and  saying  that,  she  choked, 
And  sharply  turn'd  about  to  hide  her  face, 
Past  to  her  chamber  and  there  flung  herself  605 

Down  on  the  great  King's  couch,  and  writhed  upon  it, 
And  clench'd  her  fingers  till  they  bit  the  palm, 
And  shriek'd  out  "  Traitor !  "  to  the  unhearing  wall, 
Then  flash'd  into  wild  tears,  and  rose  again, 
And  moved  about  her  palace,  proud  and  pale.  610 

Gawain  the  while  thro'  all  the  region  round 
Rode  with  his  diamond,  wearied  of  the  quest, 
Touch'd  at  all  points  except  the  poplar  grove, 
And  came  at  last,  tho'  late,  to  Astolat ; 
Whom  glittering  in  enamell'd  arms  the  maid  615 

Glanced  at,  and  cried,  "  What  news  from  Camelot,  lord  ? 
What  of  the  knight  with  the  red  sleeve  ?  "     "  He  won." 
"  I  knew  it,"  she  said.     "  But  parted  from  the  jousts 
Hurt  in  the  side  ;  "  whereat  she  caught  her  breath  ; 
Thro'  her  own  side  she  felt  the  sharp  lance  go ;  620 


LANCELOT   AND   ELAINE  69 

Thereon  she  smote  her  hand ;  wellnigh  she  swoon'd : 

And,  while  he  gazed  wonderingly  at  her,  came 

The  Lord  of  Astolat  out,  to  whom  the  prince 

Reported  who  he  was,  and  on  what  quest 

Sent,  that  he  bore  the  prize  and  could  not  find  625 

The  victor,  but  had  ridden  at  random  round 

To  seek  him,  and  had  wearied  of  the  search. 

To  whom  the  Lord  of  Astolat:  "  Bide  with  us, 

And  ride  no  more  at  random,  noble  prince! 

Here  was  the  knight  and  here  he  left  a  shield ;  630 

This  will  he  send  or  come  for :  furthermore, 

Our  son  is  with  him  ;  we  shall  hear  anon, 

Needs  must  we  hear."     To  this  the  courteous  prince 

Accorded  with  his  wonted  courtesy, 

Courtesy  with  a  touch  of  traitor  in  it,  635 

And  stay'd ;  and  cast  his  eyes  on  fair  Elaine ; 

Where  could  be  found  face  daintier  ?  then  her  shape 

From  forehead  down  to  foot,  perfect  —  again 

From  foot  to  forehead  exquisitely  turn'd : 

"  Well  —  if  I  bide,  lo  !  this  wild  flower  for  me !  "  640 

And  oft  they  met  among  the  garden  yews, 

And  there  he  set  himself  to  play  upon  her 

With  sallying  wit,  free  flashes  from  a  height 

Above  her,  graces  of  the  court,  and  songs, 

Sighs,  and  low  smiles,  and  golden  eloquence  645 

And  amorous  adulation,  till  the  maid 

RebelPd  against  it,  saying  to  him  :  "  Prince, 

O  loyal  nephew  of  our  noble  King, 

Why  ask  you  not  to  see  the  shield  he  left, 

Whence  you  might  learn  his  name  ?     Why  slight  your  King, 

And  lose  the  quest  he  sent  you  on,  and  prove  651 

No  surer  than  our  falcon  yesterday, 

Who  lost  the  hern  we  slipt  her  at,  and  went 


70  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

To  all  the  winds?  "     "  Nay,  by  mine  head,"  said  he, 

"  I  lose  it,  as  we  lose  the  lark  in  heaven,  655 

0  damsel,  in  the  light  of  your  blue  eyes ; 
But  an  ye  will  it  let  me  see  the  shield." 

And  when  the  shield  was  brought,  and  Gawain  saw 

Sir  Lancelot's  azure  lions,  crown'd  with  gold, 

Ramp  in  the  field,  he  smote  his  thigh,  and  mock'd :          660 

"Right  was  the  King!  our  Lancelot!  that  true  man!" 

"And  right  was  I,"  she  answer'd  merrily,  "  I, 

Who  dream'd  my  knight  the  greatest  knight  of  all." 

"And  if  /  dream'd,"  said  Gawain,  "  that  you  love 

This  greatest  knight,  your  pardon  !  lo,  ye  know  it  1  665 

Speak  therefore  :  shall  I  waste  myself  in  vain?" 

Full  simple  was  her  answer  :  "  What  know  I  ? 

My  brethren  have  been  all  my  fellowship; 

And  I,  when  often  they  have  talk'd  of  love, 

Wish'd  it  had  been  my  mother,  for  they  talk'd,  670 

Meseem'd,  of  what  they  knew  not;  so  myself  — 

1  know  not  if  I  know  what  true  love  is, 
But  if  I  know,  then,  if  I  love  not  him, 

I  know  there  is  none  other  I  can  love." 

"  Yea,  by  God's  death,"  said  he,  "ye  love  him  well,          675 

But  would  not,  knew  ye  what  all  others  know, 

And  whom  he  loves."     "  So  be  it,"  cried  Elaine, 

And  lifted  her  fair  face  and  moved  away : 

But  he  pursued  her,  calling,  "  Stay  a  little ! 

One  golden  minute's  grace  !  he  wore  your  sleeve:  680 

Would  he  break  faith  with  one  I  may  not  name  ? 

Must  our  true  man  change  like  a  leaf  at  last  ? 

Nay  —  like  enow  :  why  then,  far  be  it  from  me 

To  cross  our  mighty  Lancelot  in  his  loves ! 

And,  damsel,  for  I  deem  you  know  full  well  685 

Where  your  great  knight  is  hidden,  let  me  leave 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  71 

My  quest  with  you ;  the  diamond  also  :  here  ! 

For  if  you  love,  it  will  be  sweet  to  give  it ; 

And  if  he  love,  it  will  be  sweet  to  have  it 

From  your  own  hand  ;  and  whether  he  love  or  not,  690 

A  diamond  is  a  diamond.     Fare  you  well 

A  thousand  times  !  —  a  thousand  times  farewell ! 

Yet,  if  he  love,  and  his  love  hold,  we  two 

May  meet  at  court  hereafter :  there,  I  think, 

So  ye  will  learn  the  courtesies  of  the  court,  695 

We  two  shall  know  each  other." 

Then  he  gave, 

And  slightly  kiss'd  the  hand  to  which  he  gave, 
The  diamond,  and  all  wearied  of  the  quest 
Leapt  on  his  horse,  and  carolling  as  he  went 
A  true-love  ballad,  lightly  rode  away.  700 

Thence  to  the  court  he  past ;  there  told  the  King 
What  the  King  knew,  "  Sir  Lancelot  is  the  knight." 
And  added,  "  Sire,  my  liege,  so  much  I  learnt ; 
But  fail'd  to  find  him  tho'  I  rode  all  round 
The  region  :  but  I  lighted  on  the  maid  705 

Whose  sleeve  he  wore ;  she  loves  him ;  and  to  her, 
Deeming  our  courtesy  is  the  truest  law, 
I  gave  the  diamond:  she  will  render  it; 
For  by  mine  head  she  knows  his  hiding-place." 

The  seldom-frowning  King  frown 'd,  and  replied,  710 

"  Too  courteous  truly !  ye  shall  go  no  more 
On  quest  of  mine,  seeing  that  ye  forget 
Obedience  is  the  courtesy  due  to  kings." 

He  spake  and  parted.     Wroth,  but  all  in  awe, 
For  twenty  strokes  of  the  blood,  without  a  word,  715 


72  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Linger'd  that  other,  staring  after  him ; 

Then  shook  his  hair,  strode  off,  and  buzz'd  abroad 

About  the  maid  of  Astolat,  and  her  love. 

All  ears  were  prick'd  at  once,  all  tongues  were  loosed: 

"  The  maid  of  Astolat  loves  Sir  Lancelot,  720 

Sir  Lancelot  loves  the  maid  of  Astolat." 

Some  read  the  King's  face,  some  the  Queen's,  and  all 

Had  marvel  what  the  maid  might  be,  but  most 

Predoom'd  her  as  unworthy.     One  old  dame 

Came  suddenly  on  the  Queen  with  the  sharp  news.  725 

She,  that  had  heard  the  noise  of  it  before, 

But  sorrowing  Lancelot  should  have  stoop'd  so  low, 

Marr'd  her  friend's  aim  with  pale  tranquillity. 

So  ran  the  tale  like  fire  about  the  court, 

Fire  in  dry  stubble  a  nine-days'  wonder  flared :  730 

Till  even  the  knights  at  banquet  twice  or  thrice 

Forgot  to  drink  to  Lancelot  and  the  Queen, 

And  pledging  Lancelot  and  the  lily  maid 

Smiled  at  each  other,  while  the  Queen,  who  sat 

With  lips  severely  placid,  felt  the  knot  735 

Climb  in  her  throat,  and  with  her  feet  unseen 

Crush'd  the  wild  passion  out  against  the  floor 

Beneath  the  banquet,  where  the  meats  became 

As  wormwood,  and  she  hated  all  who  pledged. 

But  far  away  the  maid  in  Astolat,  740 

Her  guiltless  rival,  she  that  ever  kept 
The  one-day-seen  Sir  Lancelot  in  her  heart, 
Crept  to  her  father,  while  he  mused  alone. 
Sat  on  his  knee,  stroked  his  gray  face  and  said: 
"  Father,  you  call  me  wilful,  and  the  fault  745 

Is  yours  who  let  me  have  my  will-,  and  now, 
Sweet  father,  will  you  let  me  lose  my  wits? " 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  73 

"  Nay,"  said  he,  "  surely."     "  Wherefore,  let  me  hence," 

She  answer'd,  "  and  find  out  our  dear  Lavaine." 

"  Ye  will  not  lose  your  wits  for  dear  Lavaine  :  750 

Bide,"  answer'd  he  :  "  we  needs  must  hear  anon 

Of  him,  and  of  that  other."     "Ay,"  she  said, 

"And  of  that  other,  for  I  needs  must  hence 

And  find  that  other,  whereso'er  he  be, 

And  with  mine  own  hand  give  his  diamond  to  him,  755 

Lest  I  be  found  as  faithless  in  the  quest 

As  yon  proud  prince  who  left  the  quest  to  me. 

Sweet  father,  I  behold  him  in  my  dreams 

Gaunt  as  it  were  the  skeleton  of  himself, 

Death-pale,  for  the  lack  of  gentle  maiden's  aid.  760 

The  gentler-born  the  maiden,  the  more  bound, 

My  father,  to  be  sweet  and  serviceable 

To  noble  knights  in  sickness,  as  ye  know, 

When  these  have  worn  their  tokens  :  let  me  hence, 

I  pray  you."     Then  her  father  nodding  said  :  765 

"Ay,  ay,  the  diamond  :  wit  ye  well,  my  child, 

Right  fain  were  I  to  learn  this  knight  were  whole, 

Being  our  greatest  :  yea,  and  you  must  give  it  — 

And  sure  I  think  this  fruit  is  hung  too  high 

For  any  mouth  to  gape  for  save  a  queen's  —  770 

Nay,  I  mean  nothing  :  so  then,  get  you  gone, 

Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  go." 


Lightly,  her  suit  allow'd,  she  slipt  away, 
And  while  she  made  her  ready  for  her  ride, 
Her  father's  latest  word  humm'd  in  her  ear,  775 

"  Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  go," 
And  changed  itself  and  echo'd  in  her  heart, 
"  Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  die." 
But  she  was  happy  enough  and  shook  it  off, 


74  IDYLLS  OF  THE   KING 

As  we  shake  off  the  bee  that  buzzes  at  us ;  780 

And  in  her  heart  she  answer'd  it  and  said, 

"  What  matter,  so  I  help  him  back  to  life  ?  " 

Then  far  away  with  good  Sir  Torre  for  guide 

Rode  o'er  the  long  backs  of  the  bushless  downs 

To  Camelot,  and  before  the  city-gates  785 

Came  on  her  brother  with  a  happy  face 

Making  a  roan  horse  caper  and  curvet 

For  pleasure  all  about  a  field  of  flowers; 

Whom  when  she  saw,  "  Lavaine,"  she  cried,  "  Lavaine, 

How  fares  my  lord  Sir  Lancelot  ?  "     He  amazed,  790 

"  Torre  and  Elaine  !  why  here  ?     Sir  Lancelot ! 

How  know  ye  my  lord's  name  is  Lancelot  ? " 

But  when  the  maid  had  told  him  all  her  tale, 

Then  turn'd  Sir  Torre,  and  being  in  his  moods 

Left  them,  and  under  the  strange-statued  gate,  795 

Where  Arthur's  wars  were  render'd  mystically, 

Past  up  the  still  rich  city  to  his  kin, 

His  own  far  blood,  which  dwelt  at  Camelot ; 

And  her,  Lavaine  across  the  poplar  grove 

Led  to  the  caves  :  there  first  she  saw  the  casque  800 

Of  Lancelot  on  the  wall :  her  scarlet  sleeve, 

Tho'  carved  and  cut,  and  half  the  pearls  away, 

Stream'd  from  it  still ;  and  in  her  heart  she  laugh'd, 

Because  he  had  not  loosed  it  from  his  helm, 

But  meant  once  more  perchance  to  tourney  in  it.  805 

And  when  they  gain'd  the  cell  wherein  he  slept, 

His  battle-writhen  arms  and  mighty  hands 

Lay  naked  on  the  wolf-skin,  and  a  dream 

Of  dragging  down  his  enemy  made  them  move. 

Then  she  that  saw  him  lying  unsleek,  unshorn,  810 

Gaunt  as  it  were  the  skeleton  of  himself, 

Utter'd  a  little  tender  dolorous  cry. 


LANCELOT  AND    ELAINE  75 

The  sound  not  wonted  in  a  place  so  still 

Woke  the  sick  knight,  and  while  he  roll'd  his  eyes 

Yet  blank  from  sleep,  she  started  to  him,  saying,  815 

"  Your  prize  the  diamond  sent  you  by  the  King." 

His  eyes  glisten'd  :  she  fancied,  "Is  it  for  me  ?  " 

And  when  the  maid  had  told  him  all  the  tale 

Of  king  and  prince,  the  diamond  sent,  the  quest 

Assign'd  to  her  not  worthy  of  it,  she  knelt  820 

Full  lowly  by  the  corners  of  his  bed, 

And  laid  the  diamond  in  his  open  hand. 

Her  face  was  near,  and  as  we  kiss  the  child 

That  does  the  task  assign'd,  he  kiss'd  her  face. 

At  once  she  slipt  like  water  to  the  floor.  825 

"Alas,"  he  said,  "your  ride  hath  wearied  you. 

Rest  must  you  have."     "  No  rest  for  me,"  she  said ; 

"  Nay,  for  near  you,  fair  lord,  I  am  at  rest." 

What  might  she  mean  by  that  ?  his  large  black  eyes, 

Yet  larger  thro'  his  leanness,  dwelt  upon  her,  830 

Till  all  her  heart's  sad  secret  blazed  itself 

In  the  heart's  colors  on  her  simple  face ; 

And  Lancelot  look'd  and  was  perplext  in  mind, 

And  being  weak  in  body  said  no  more, 

But  did  not  love  the  color ;  woman's  love,  835 

Save  one,  he  not  regarded,  and  so  turn'd 

Sighing,  and  feign'd  a  sleep  until  he  slept. 

Then  rose  Elaine  and  glided  thro'  the  fields, 
And  past  beneath  the  weirdly-sculptured  gates 
Far  up  the  dim  rich  city  to  her  kin  ;  840 

There  bode  the  night :  but  woke  with  dawn,  and  past 
Down  thro'  the  dim  rich  city  to  the  fields, 
Thence  to  the  cave.     So  day  by  day  she  past 
In  either  twilight  ghost-like  to  and  fro 


76  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Gliding,  and  every  day  she  tended  him,  845 

And  likewise  many  a  night ;  and  Lancelot 

Would,  tho'  he  call'd  his  wound  a  little  hurt 

Whereof  he  should  be  quickly  whole,  at  times 

Brain-feverous  in  his  heat  and  agony,  seem 

Uncourteous,  even  he  :  but  the  meek  maid  850 

Sweetly  forbore  him  ever,  being  to  him 

Meeker  than  any  child  to  a  rough  nurse, 

Milder  than  any  mother  to  a  sick  child, 

And  never  woman  yet,  since  man's  first  fall, 

Did  kindlier  unto  man,  but  her  deep  love  855 

Upbore  her;  till  the  hermit,  skill'd  in  all 

The  simples  and  the  science  of  that  time, 

Told  him  that  her  fine  care  had  saved  his  life. 

And  the  sick  man  forgot  her  simple  blush, 

Would  call  her  friend  and  sister,  sweet  Elaine,  860 

Would  listen  for  her  coming  and  regret 

Her  parting  step,  and  held  her  tenderly, 

And  loved  her  with  all  love  except  the  love 

Of  man  and  woman  when  they  love  their  best, 

Closest  and  sweetest,  and  had  died  the  death  865 

In  any  knightly  fashion  for  her  sake. 

And  peradventure  had  he  seen  her  first 

She  might  have  made  this  and  that  other  world 

Another  world  for  the  sick  man ;  but  now 

The  shackles  of  an  old  love  straiten 'd  him,  870 

His  honor  rooted  in  dishonor  stood, 

And  faith  unfaithful  kept  him  falsely  true. 

Yet  the  great  knight  in  his  mid-sickness  made 
Full  many  a  holy  vow  and  pure  resolve. 
These,  as  but  born  of  sickness,  could  not  live ;  875 

For  when  the  blood  ran  lustier  in  him  again, 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  77 

Full  often  the  bright  image  of  one  face, 

Making  a  treacherous  quiet  in  his  heart, 

Dispersed  his  resolution  like  a  cloud. 

Then  if  the  maiden,  while  that  ghostly  grace  880 

Beam'd  on  his  fancy,  spoke,  he  answer'd  not, 

Or  short  and  coldly,  and  she  knew  right  well 

What  the  rough  sickness  meant,  but  what  this  meant 

She  knew  not,  and  the  sorrow  dimm'd  her  sight, 

And  drave  her  ere  her  time  across  the  fields  885 

Far  into  the  rich  city,  where  alone 

She  murmur'd,  "  Vain,  in  vain  :  it  cannot  be. 

He  will  not  love  me  :  how  then  ?  must  I  die  ?  " 

Then  as  a  little  helpless  innocent  bird, 

That  has  but  one  plain  passage  of  few  notes,  890 

Will  sing  the  simple  passage  o'er  and  o'er 

For  all  an  April  morning,  till  the  ear 

Wearies  to  hear  it,  so  the  simple  maid 

Went  half  the  night  repeating,  "  Must  I  die  ?  " 

And  now  to  right  she  turn'd,  and  now  to  left,  895 

And  found  no  ease  in  turning  or  in  rest ; 

And  "  Him  or  death,"  she  mutter'd,  "  death  or  him," 

Again  and  like  a  burthen,  "  Him  or  death." 

But  when  Sir  Lancelot's  deadly  hurt  was  whole, 
To  Astolat  returning  rode  the  three.  900 

There  morn  by  morn,  arraying  her  sweet  self 
In  that  wherein  she  deem'd  she  look'd  her  best, 
She  came  before  Sir  Lancelot,  for  she  thought, 
"  If  I  be  loved,  these  are  my  festal  robes, 
If  not,  the  victim's  flowers  before  he  fall."  905 

And  Lancelot  ever  prest  upon  the  maid 
That  she  should  ask  some  goodly  gift  of  him 
For  her  own  self  or  hers  :  "  and  do  not  shun 


78  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

To  speak  the  wish  most  near  to  your  true  heart; 

Such  service  have  ye  done  me  that  I  make  gio 

My  will  of  yours,  and  prince  and  lord  am  I 

In  mine  own  land,  and  what  I  will  I  can." 

Then  like  a  ghost  she  lifted  up  her  face, 

But  like  a  ghost  without  the  power  to  speak. 

And  Lancelot  saw  that  she  withheld  her  wish,  915 

And  bode  among  them  yet  a  little  space 

Till  he  should  learn  it ;  and  one  morn  it  chanced 

He  found  her  in  among  the  garden  yews, 

And  said,  "  Delay  no  longer,  speak  your  wish, 

Seeing  I  go  to-day:  "  then  out  she  brake  :  920 

"  Going  ?  and  we  shall  never  see  you  more. 

And  I  must  die  for  want  of  one  bold  word." 

"  Speak :  that  I  live  to  hear,"  he  said,  "  is  yours." 

Then  suddenly  and  passionately  she  spoke : 

"  I  have  gone  mad.     I  love  you  :  let  me  die."  925 

"Ah,  sister,"  answer'd  Lancelot,  "  what  is  this  ?  " 

And  innocently  extending  her  white  arms, 

"  Your  love,"  she  said,  "  your  love  —  to  be  your  wife." 

And  Lancelot  answer'd,  "  Had  I  chosen  to  wed, 

I  had  been  wedded  earlier,  sweet  Elaine ;  930 

But  now  there  never  will  be  wife  of  mine." 

"  No,  no,"  she  cried,  "  I  care  not  to  be  wife, 

But  to  be  with  you  still,  to  see  your  face, 

To  serve  you,  and  to  follow  you  thro'  the  world." 

And  Lancelot  answer'd :  "  Nay,  the  world,  the  world,       935 

All  ear  and  eye,  with  such  a  stupid  heart 

To  interpret  ear  and  eye,  and  such  a  tongue 

To  blare  its  own  interpretation  —  nay, 

Full  ill  then  should  I  quit  your  brother's  love, 

And  your  good  father's  kindness."     And  she  said,  940 

"  Not  to  be  with  you,  not  to  see  your  face  — 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE 


79 


Alas  for  me  then,  my  good  days  are  done !  " 

"  Nay,  noble  maid,"  he  answer'd,  "  ten  times  nay ! 

This  is  not  love,  but  love's  first  flash  in  youth, 

Most  common:  yea,  I  know  it  of  mine  own  self;  945 

And  you  yourself  will  smile  at  your  own  self 

Hereafter,  when  you  yield  your  flower  of  life 

To  one  more  fitly  yours,  not  thrice  your  age: 

And  then  will  I,  for  true  you  are  and  sweet 

Beyond  mine  old  belief  in  womanhood,  950 

More  specially  should  your  good  knight  be  poor, 

Endow  you  with  broad  land  and  territory 

Even  to  the  half  my  realm  beyond  the  seas, 

So  that  would  make  you  happy :  furthermore, 

Even  to  the  death,  as  tho'  ye  were  my  blood,  955 

In  all  your  quarrels  will  I  be  your  knight. 

This  will  I  do,  dear  damsel,  for  your  sake, 

And  more  than  this  I  cannot." 

While  he  spoke 

She  neither  blush'd  nor  shook,  but  deathly-pale 
Stood  grasping  what  was  nearest,  then  replied,  960 

"Of  all  this  will  I  nothing;"  and  so  fell, 
And  thus  they  bore  her  swooning  to  her  tower. 

Then  spake,  to  whom  thro'  those  black  walls  of  yew 
Their  talk  had  pierced,  her  father :  "Ay,  a  flash, 
I  fear  me,  that  will  strike  my  blossom  dead.  965 

Too  courteous  are  ye,  fair  Lord  Lancelot. 
I  pray  you,  use  some  rough  discourtesy 
To  blunt  or  break  her  passion." 

Lancelot  said, 
"  That  were  against  me  :  what  I  can  I  will ;  " 


80  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

And  there  that  day  remain'd,  and  toward  even  970 

Sent  for  his  shield :  full  meekly  rose  the  maid, 

Stript  off  the  case,  and  gave  the  naked  shield; 

Then,  when  she  heard  his  horse  upon  the  stones, 

Unclasping  flung  the  casement  back,  and  look'd 

Down  on  his  helm,  from  which  her  sleeve  had  gone.         975 

And  Lancelot  knew  the  little  clinking  sound  ; 

And  she  by  tact  of  love  was  well  aware 

That  Lancelot  knew  that  she  was  looking  at  him. 

And  yet  he  glanced  not  up,  nor  waved  his  hand, 

Nor  bade  farewell,  but  sadly  rode  away.  98° 

This  was  the  one  discourtesy  that  he  used. 

So  in  her  tower  alone  the  maiden  sat : 
His  very  shield  was  gone ;  only  the  case, 
Her  own  poor  work,  her  empty  labor,  left. 
But  still  she  heard  him,  still  his  picture  form'd  985 

And  grew  between  her  and  the  pictured  wall. 
Then  came  her  father,  saying  in  low  tones, 
"  Have  comfort,"  whom  she  greeted  quietly. 
Then  came  her  brethren  saying,  "  Peace  to  thee, 
Sweet  sister,"  whom  she  answer'd  with  all  calm.  990 

But  when  they  left  her  to  herself  again, 
Death,  like  a  friend's  voice  from  a  distant  field 
Approaching  thro'  the  darkness,  call'd  ;  the  owls 
Wailing  had  power  upon  her,  and  she  mixt 
Her  fancies  with  the  sallow-rifted  glooms  995 

Of  evening  and  the  moanings  of  the  wind. 

And  in  those  days  she  made  a  little  song, 
And  call'd  her  song  "  The  Song  of  Love  and  Death," 
And  sang  it:  sweetly  could  she  make  and  sing. 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE  8l 

"  Sweet  is  true  love  tho'  given  in  vain,  in  vain ;  1000 

And  sweet  is  death  who  puts  an  end  to  pain : 
I  know  not  which  is  sweeter,  no,  not  I. 

"  Love,  art  thou  sweet  ?  then  bitter  death  must  be  : 
Love,  thou  art  bitter ;  sweet  is  death  to  me. 

0  Love,  if  death  be  sweeter,  let  me  die.  1005 

"  Sweet  love,  that  seems  not  made  to  fade  away ; 
Sweet  death,  that  seems  to  make  us  loveless  clay : 

1  know  not  which  is  sweeter,  no,  not  I. 

"  I  fain  would  follow  love,  if  that  could  be ; 
I  needs  must  follow  death,  who  calls  for  me ;  1010 

Call  and  I  follow,  I  follow!  let  me  die." 

High  with  the  last  line  scaled  her  voice,  and  this, 
All  in  a  fiery  dawning  wild  with  wind 
That  shook  her  tower,  the  brothers  heard,  and  thought 
With  shuddering,  "  Hark  the  Phantom  of  the  house        1015 
That  ever  shrieks  before  a  death,"  and  call'd 
The  father,  and  all  three  in  hurry  and  fear 
Ran  to  her,  and  lo !  the  blood-red  light  of  dawn 
Flared  on  her  face,  she  shrilling,  "  Let  me  die  !  " 

As  when  we  dwell  upon  a  word  we  know,  1020 

Repeating,  till  the  word  we  know  so  well 
Becomes  a  wonder,  and  we  know  not  why, 
So  dwelt  the  father  on  her  face,  and  thought, 
"Is  this  Elaine?"  till  back  the  maiden  fell, 
Then  gave  a  languid  hand  to  each,  and  lay,  1025 

Speaking  a  still  good-morrow  with  her  eyes. 
At  last  she  said  :  "Sweet  brothers,  yesternight 
I  seem'd  a  curious  little  maid  again, 


82  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

As  happy  as  when  we  dwelt  among  the  woods, 

And  when  ye  used  to  take  me  with  the  flood  1030 

Up  the  great  river  in  the  boatman's  boat. 

Only  ye  would  not  pass  beyond  the  cape 

That  had  the  poplar  on  it :  there  ye  fixt 

Your  limit,  oft  returning  with  the  tide. 

And  yet  I  cried  because  ye  would  not  pass  1035 

Beyond  it,  and  far  up  the  shining  flood 

Until  we  found  the  palace  of  the  King. 

And  yet  ye  would  not ;  but  this  night  I  dream'd 

That  I  was  all  alone  upon  the  flood, 

And  then  I  said,  'Now  shall  I  have  my  will :'  1040 

And  there  I  woke,  but  still  the  wish  remain'd. 

So  let  me  hence  that  I  may  pass  at  last 

Beyond  the  poplar  and  far  up  the  flood, 

Until  I  find  the  palace  of  the  King. 

There  will  I  enter  in  among  them  all,  1045 

And  no  man  there  will  dare  to  mock  at  me ; 

But  there  the  fine  Gawain  will  wonder  at  me, 

And  there  the  great  Sir  Lancelot  muse  at  me ; 

Gawain,  who  bade  a  thousand  farewells  to  me, 

Lancelot,  who  coldly  went,  nor  bade  me  one :  1050 

And  there  the  King  will  know  me  and  my  love, 

And  there  the  Queen  herself  will  pity  me, 

And  all  the  gentle  court  will  welcome  me, 

And  after  my  long  voyage  I  shall  rest!" 

"Peace,"  said  her  father,  "O  my  child,  ye  seem          1055 
Light-headed,  for  what  force  is  yours  to  go 
So  far,  being  sick  ?  and  wherefore  would  ye  look 
On  this  proud  fellow  again,  who  scorns  us  all?" 

Then  the  rough  Torre  began  to  heave  and  move, 
And  bluster  into  stormy  sobs  and  say :  1060 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  83 

"  I  never  loved  him :  an  I  meet  with  him, 

I  care  not  howsoever  great  he  be, 

Then  will  I  strike  at  him  and  strike  him  down; 

Give  me  good  fortune,  I  will  strike  him  dead, 

For  this  discomfort  he  hath  done  the  house."  1065 

To  whom  the  gentle  sister  made  reply : 
"  Fret  not  yourself,  dear  brother,  nor  be  wroth, 
Seeing  it  is  no  more  Sir  Lancelot's  fault 
Not  to  love  me  than  it  is  mine  to  love 
Him  of  all  men  who  seems  to  me  the  highest."  1070 

"Highest?"  the  father  answer'd,  echoing  "highest?"  — 
He  meant  to  break  the  passion  in  her — "nay, 
Daughter,  I  know  not  what  you  call  the  highest ; 
But  this  I  know,  for  all  the  people  know  it, 
He  loves  the  Queen,  and  in  an  open  shame:  1075 

And  she  returns  his  love  in  open  shame ; 
If  this  be  high,  what  is  it  to  be  low?" 

Then  spake  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat : 
"Sweet  father,  all  too  faint  and  sick  am  I 
For  anger  :  these  are  slanders  ;  never  yet  1080 

Was  noble  man  but  made  ignoble  talk. 
He  makes  no  friend  who  never  made  a  foe. 
But  now  it  is  my  glory  to  have  loved 
One  peerless,  without  stain  :  so  let  me  pass, 
My  father,  howsoe'er  I  seem  to  you,  1085 

Not  all  unhappy,  having  loved  God's  best 
And  greatest,  tho'  my  love  had  no  return : 
Yet,  seeing  you  desire  your  child  to  live, 
Thanks,  but  you  work  against  your  own  desire ; 
For  if  I  could  believe  the  things  you  say  1090 


84  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

I  should  but  die  the  sooner ;  wherefore  cease, 
Sweet  father,  and  bid  call  the  ghostly  man 
Hither,  and  let  me  shrive  me  clean  and  die." 

So  when  the  ghostly  man  had  come  and  gone, 
She,  with  a  face  bright  as  for  sin  forgiven,  1095 

Besought  Lavaine  to  write  as  she  devised 
A  letter,  word  for  word ;  and  when  he  ask'd, 
"Is  it  for  Lancelot,  is  it  for  my  dear  lord  ? 
Then  will  I  bear  it  gladly ; "  she  replied, 
"For  Lancelot  and  the  Queen  and  all  the  world,  noo 

But  I  myself  must  bear  it."     Then  he  wrote 
The  letter  she  devised;  which  being  writ 
And  folded,  "O  sweet  father,  tender  and  true, 
Deny  me  not,"  she  said — "ye  never  yet 
Denied  my  fancies  —  this,  however  strange,  1105 

My  latest :  lay  the  letter  in  my  hand 
A  little  ere  I  die,  and  close  the  hand 
Upon  it ;  I  shall  guard  it  even  in  death. 
And  when  the  heat  has  gone  from  out  my  heart, 
Then  take  the  little  bed  on  which  I  died  mo 

For  Lancelot's  love,  and  deck  it  like  the  Queen's 
For  richness,  and  me  also  like  the  Queen 
In  all  I  have  of  rich,  and  lay  me  on  it. 
And  let  there  be  prepared  a  chariot-bier 
To  take  me  to  the  river,  and  a  barge  1115 

Be  ready  on  the  river,  clothed  in  black. 
I  go  in  state  to  court,  to  meet  the  Queen. 
There  surely  I  shall  speak  for  mine  own  self, 
And  none  of  you  can  speak  for  me  so  well. 
And  therefore  let  our  dumb  old  man  alone  1120 

Go  with  me ;  he  can  steer  and  row,  and  he 
Will  guide  me  to  that  palace,  to  the  doors." 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  8$ 

She  ceased:  her  father  promised  ;  whereupon 
She  grew  so  cheerful  that  they  deem'd  her  death 
Was  rather  in  the  fantasy  than  the  blood.  1125 

But  ten  slow  mornings  past,  and  on  the  eleventh 
Her  father  laid  the  letter  in  her  hand, 
And  closed  the  hand  upon  it,  and  she  died. 
So  that  day  there  was  dole  in  Astolat. 

But  when  the  next  sun  brake  from  underground,          1130 
Then,  those  two  brethren  slowly  with  bent  brows 
Accompanying,  the  sad  chariot-bier 
Past  like  a  shadow  thro'  the  field,  that  shone 
Full-summer,  to  that  stream  whereon  the  barge, 
Pall'd  all  its  length  in  blackest  samite,  lay.  1135 

There  sat  the  lifelong  creature  of  the  house, 
Loyal,  the  dumb  old  servitor,  on  deck, 
Winking  his  eyes,  and  twisted  all  his  face. 
So  those  two  brethren  from  the  chariot  took 
And  on  the  black  decks  laid  her  in  her  bed,  1140 

Set  in  her  hand  a  lily,  o'er  her  hung 
The  silken  case  with  braided  blazonings, 
And  kiss'd  her  quiet  brows,  and  saying  to  her, 
"Sister,  farewell  for  ever,"  and  again, 

"Farewell,  sweet  sister,"  parted  all  in  tears.  1145 

Then  rose  the  dumb  old  servitor,  and  the  dead, 
Oar'd  by  the  dumb,  went  upward  with  the  flood — 
In  her  right  hand  the  lily,  in  her  left 
The  letter  —  all  her  bright  hair  streaming  down  — 
And  all  the  coverlid  was  cloth  of  gold  1150 

Drawn  to  her  waist,  and  she  herself  in  white 
All  but  her  face,  and  that  clear-featured  face 
Was  lovely,  for  she  did  not  seem  as  dead, 
But  fast  asleep,  and  lay  as  tho'  she  smiled. 


86  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

That  day  Sir  Lancelot  at  the  palace  craved  1155 

Audience  of  Guinevere,  to  give  at  last 
The  price  of  half  a  realm,  his  costly  gift, 
Hard-won  and  hardly  won  with  bruise  and  blow, 
With  deaths  of  others,  and  almost  his  own, 
The  nine-years-fought-for  diamonds  ;  for  he  saw  1160 

One  of  her  house,  and  sent  him  to  the  Queen 
Bearing  his  wish,  whereto  the  Queen  agreed 
With  such  and  so  unmoved  a  majesty 
She  might  have  seem'd  her  statue,  but  that  he, 
Low-drooping  till  he  wellnigh  kiss'd  her  feet  1165 

For  loyal  awe,  saw  with  a  sidelong  eye 
The  shadow  of  some  piece  of  pointed  lace, 
In  the  Queen's  shadow,  vibrate  on  the  walls, 
And  parted,  laughing  in  his  courtly  heart. 

All  in  an  oriel  on  the  summer  side,  1170 

Vine-clad,  of  Arthur's  palace  toward  the  stream, 
They  met,  and  Lancelot  kneeling  utter'd,  "  Queen, 
Lady,  my  liege,  in  whom  I  have  my  joy, 
Take,  what  I  had  not  won  except  for  you, 
These  jewels,  and  make  me  happy,  making  them  1175 

An  armlet  for  the  roundest  arm  on  earth, 
Or  necklace  for  a  neck  to  which  the  swan's 
Is  tawnier  than  her  cygnet's  :  these  are  words  : 
Your  beauty  is  your  beauty,  and  I  sin 

In  speaking,  yet  O  grant  my  worship  of  it  1180 

Words,  as  we  grant  grief  tears.     Such  sin  in  words 
Perchance,  we  both  can  pardon :  but,  my  Queen, 
I  hear  of  rumors  flying  thro'  your  court. 
Our  bond,  as  not  the  bond  of  man  and  wife, 
Should  have  in  it  an  absoluter  trust  1185 

To  make  up  that  defect :  let  rumors  be : 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  87 

When  did  not  rumors  fly  ?  these,  as  I  trust 
That  you  trust  me  in  your  own  nobleness, 
I  may  not  well  believe  that  you  believe." 

While  thus  he  spoke,  half  turn'd  away,  the  Queen       1190 
Brake  from  the  vast  oriel-embowering  vine 
Leaf  after  leaf,  and  tore,  and  cast  them  off, 
Till  all  the  place  whereon  she  stood  was  green ; 
Then,  when  he  ceased,  in  one  cold  passive  hand 
Received  at  once  and  laid  aside  the  gems  1195 

There  on  a  table  near  her,  and  replied : 

"  It  may  be  I  am  quicker  of  belief 
Than  you  believe  me,  Lancelot  of  the  Lake. 
Our  bond  is  not  the  bond  of  man  and  wife. 
This  good  is  in  it,  whatsoe'er  of  ill,  1200 

It  can  be  broken  easier.     I  for  you 
This  many  a  year  have  done  despite  and  wrong 
To  one  whom  ever  in  my  heart  of  hearts 
I  did  acknowledge  nobler.     What  are  these  ? 
Diamonds  for  me!  they  had  been  thrice  their  worth        1205 
Being  your  gift,  had  you  not  lost  your  own. 
To  loyal  hearts  the  value  of  all  gifts 
Must  vary  as  the  giver's.     Not  for  me ! 
For  her!  for  your  new  fancy.     Only  this 
Grant  me,  I  pray  you  :  have  your  joys  apart.  1210 

I  doubt  not  that,  however  changed,  you  keep 
So  much  of  what  is  graceful :  and  myself 
Would  shun  to  break  those  bonds  of  courtesy 
In  which  as  Arthur's  Queen  I  move  and  rule : 
So  cannot  speak  my  mind.     An  end  to  this!  121$ 

A  strange  one !  yet  I  take  it  with  Amen. 
So  pray  you,  add  my  diamonds  to  her  pearls ; 


88  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Deck  her  with  these ;  tell  her;  she  shines  me  down : 

An  armlet  for  an  arm  to  which  the  Queen's 

Is  haggard,  or  a  necklace  for  a  neck  1220 

O  as  much  fairer  —  as  a  faith  once  fair 

Was  richer  than  these  diamonds  —  hers  not  mine  — 

Nay,  by  the  mother  of  our  Lord  himself, 

Or  hers  or  mine,  mine  now  to  work  my  will  — 

She  shall  not  have  them." 

Saying  which  she  seized,      1225 
And,  thro'  the  casement  standing  wide  for  heat, 
Flung  them,  and  down  they  flash'd,  and  smote  the  stream. 
Then  from  the  smitten  surface  flash'd,  as  it  were, 
Diamonds  to  meet  them,  and  they  past  away. 
Then  while  Sir  Lancelot  leant,  in  half  disdain  1230 

At  love,  life,  all  things,  on  the  window  ledge, 
Close  underneath  his  eyes,  and  right  across 
Where  these  had  fallen,  slowly  past  the  barge 
Whereon  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat 
Lay  smiling,  like  a  star  in  blackest  night.  1235 

But  the  wild  Queen,  who  saw  not,  burst  away 
To  weep  and  wail  in  secret ;  and  the  barge, 
On  to  the  palace-doorway  sliding,  paused. 
There  two  stood  arm'd,  and  kept  the  door ;  to  whom 
All  up  the  marble  stair,  tier  over  tier,  1240 

Were  added  mouths  that  gaped,  and  eyes  that  ask'd, 
"  What  is  it  ?  "  but  that  oarsman's  haggard  face, 
As  hard  and  still  as  is  the  face  that  men 
Shape  to  their  fancy's  eye  from  broken  rocks 
On  some  cliff-side,  appall'd  them,  and  they  said,  1245 

"  He  is  enchanted,  cannot  speak —  and  she, 
Look  how  she  sleeps  —  the  Fairy  Queen,  so  fair ! 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  89 

Yea,  but  how  pale  !  what  are  they  ?  flesh  and  blood  ? 

Or  come  to  take  the  King  to  Fairyland  ? 

For  some  do  hold  our  Arthur  cannot  die,  1250 

But  that  he  passes  into  Fairyland." 

While  thus  they  babbled  of  the  King,  the  King 
Came  girt  with  knights  :  then  turn'd  the  tongueless  man 
From  the  half-face  to  the  full  eye,  and  rose 
And  pointed  to  the  damsel,  and  the  doors.  1255 

So  Arthur  bade  the  meek  Sir  Percivale 
And  pure  Sir  Galahad  to  uplift  the  maid; 
And  reverently  they  bore  her  into  hall. 
Then  came  the  fine  Gawain  and  wonder'd  at  her, 
And  Lancelot  later  came  and  mused  at  her,  1260 

And  last  the  Queen  herself,  and  pitied  her: 
But  Arthur  spied  the  letter  in  her  hand, 
Stoopt,  took,  brake  seal,  and  read  it ;  this  was  all : 

"  Most  noble  lord,  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake, 
I,  sometime  call'd  the  maid  of  Astolat,  1265 

Come,  for  you  left  me  taking  no  farewell, 
Hither,  to  take  my  last  farewell  of  you. 
I  loved  you,  and  my  love  had  no  return, 
And  therefore  my  true  love  has  been  my  death. 
And  therefore  to  our  Lady  Guinevere,  1270 

And  to  all  other  ladies,  I  make  moan : 
Pray  for  my  soul,  and  yield  me  burial. 
Pray  for  my  soul  thou  too,  Sir  Lancelot, 
As  thou  art  a  knight  peerless." 

Thus  he  read ; 

And  ever  in  the  reading,  lords  and  dames  1275 

Wept,  looking  often  from  his  face  who  read 


90  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

To  hers  which  lay  so  silent,  and  at  times, 

So  touch'd  were  they,  half-thinking  that  her  lips, 

Who  had  devised  the  letter,  moved  again. 

Then  freely  spoke  Sir  Lancelot  to  them  all :  1280 

"  My  lord  liege  Arthur,  and  all  ye  that  hear, 
Know  that  for  this  most  gentle  maiden's  death 
Right  heavy  am  I ;  for  good  she  was  and  true, 
But  loved  me  with  a  love  beyond  all  love 
In  women,  whomsoever  I  have  known.  1285 

Yet  to  be  loved  makes  not  to  love  again; 
Not  at  my  years,  however  it  hold  in  youth. 
I  swear  by  truth  and  knighthood  that  I  gave 
No  cause,  not  willingly,  for  such  a  love  : 
To  this  I  call  my  friends  in  testimony,  I29° 

Her  brethren,  and  her  father,  who  himself 
Besought  me  to  be  plain  and  blunt,  and  use, 
To  break  her  passion,  some  discourtesy 
Against  my  nature  :  what  I  could,  I  did. 
I  left  her  and  I  bade  her  no  farewell ;  1295 

Tho'  had  I  dreamt  the  damsel  would  have  died, 
I  might  have  put  my  wits  to  some  rough  use, 
And  help'd  her  from  herself." 

Then  said  the  Queen 

(Sea  was  her  wrath,  yet  working  after  storm) 
"  Ye  might  at  least  have  done  her  so  much  grace,  1300 

Fair  lord,  as  would  have  help'd  her  from  her  death." 
He  raised  his  head,  their  eyes  met  and  hers  fell, 
He  adding, 

"  Queen,  she  would  not  be  content 
Save  that  I  wedded  her,  which  could  not  be. 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  91 

Then  might  she  follow  me  thro'  the  world,  she  ask'd ;     1305 

It  could  not  be.     I  told  her  that  her  love 

Was  but  the  flash  of  youth,  would  darken  down, 

To  rise  hereafter  in  a  stiller  flame 

Toward  one  more  worthy  of  her  —  then  would  I, 

More  specially  were  he,  she  wedded,  poor,  1310 

Estate  them  with  large  land  and  territory 

In  mine  own  realm  beyond  the  narrow  seas, 

To  keep  them  in  all  joyance  :  more  than  this 

I  could  not ;  this  she  would  not,  and  she  died." 

He  pausing,  Arthur  answer'd,  "O  my  knight,  1315 

It  will  be  to  thy  worship,  as  my  knight, 
And  mine,  as  head  of  all  our  Table  Round, 
To  see  that  she  be  buried  worshipfully." 

So  toward  that  shrine  which  then  in  all  the  realm 
Was  richest,  Arthur  leading,  slowly  went  132° 

The  marshall'd  Order  of  their  Table  Round, 
And  Lancelot  sad  beyond  his  wont,  to  see 
The  maiden  buried,  not  as  one  unknown, 
Nor  meanly,  but  with  gorgeous  obsequies, 
And  mass,  and  rolling  music,  like  a  queen.  1325 

And  when  the  knights  had  laid  her  comely  head 
Low  in  the  dust  of  half-forgotten  kings, 
Then  Arthur  spake  among  them,  "  Let  her  tomb 
Be  costly,  and  her  image  thereupon, 

And  let  the  shield  of  Lancelot  at  her  feet  1330 

Be  carven,  and  her  lily  in  her  hand. 
And  let  the  story  of  her  dolorous  voyage 
For  all  true  hearts  be  blazon'd  on  her  tomb 
In  letters  gold  and  azure  !  "  which  was  wrought 
Thereafter ;  but  when  now  the  lords  and  dames  1335 


92  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

And  people,  from  the  high  door  streaming,  broke 

Disorderly,  as  homeward  each,  the  Queen, 

Who  mark'd  Sir  Lancelot  where  he  moved  apart, 

Drew  near,  and  sigh'd  in  passing,  "  Lancelot, 

Forgive  me  ;  mine  was  jealousy  in  love."  1340 

He  answer'd  with  his  eyes  upon  the  ground, 

"  That  is  love's  curse ;  pass  on,  my  Queen,  forgiven." 

But  Arthur,  who  beheld  his  cloudy  brows, 

Approach'd  him,  and  with  full  affection  said  : 

"  Lancelot,  my  Lancelot,  thou  in  whom  I  have  1345 

Most  joy  and  most  affiance,  for  I  know 
What  thou  hast  been  in  battle  by  my  side, 
And  many  a  time  have  watch'd  thee  at  the  tilt 
Strike  down  the  lusty  and  long  practised  knight, 
And  let  the  younger  and  unskill'd  go  by  1350 

To  win  his  honor  and  to  make  his  name, 
And  loved  thy  courtesies  and  thee,  a  man 
Made  to  be  loved ;  but  now  I  would  to  God, 
Seeing  the  homeless  trouble  in  thine  eyes, 
Thou  couldst  have  loved  this  maiden,  shaped,  it  seems,  1355 
By  God  for  thee  alone,  and  from  her  face, 
If  one  may  judge  the  living  by  the  dead, 
Delicately  pure  and  marvellously  fair, 
Who  might  have  brought  thee,  now  a  lonely  man 
Wifeless  and  heirless,  noble  issue,  sons  1360 

Born  to  the  glory  of  thy  name  and  fame, 
My  knight,  the  great  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake." 

Then  answer'd  Lancelot :  "  Fair  she  was,  my  King, 
Pure,  as  you  ever  wish  your  knights  to  be. 
To  doubt  her  fairness  were  to  want  an  eye,  1365 

To  doubt  her  pureness  were  to  want  a  heart  — 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  93 

Yea,  to  be  loved,  if  what  is  worthy  love 

Could  bind  him,  but  free  love  will  not  be  bound." 

"  Free  love,  so  bound,  were  freest,"  said  the  King. 
"  Let  love  be  free  ;  free  love  is  for  the  best :  1370 

And,  after  heaven,  on  our  dull  side  of  death, 
What  should  be  best,  if  not  so  pure  a  love 
Clothed  in  so  pure  a  loveliness  ?  yet  thee 
She  fail'd  to  bind,  tho'  being,  as  I  think, 
Unbound  as  yet,  and  gentle,  as  I  know."  1375 

And  Lancelot  answer'd  nothing,  but  he  went, 
And  at  the  inrunning  of  a  little  brook 
Sat  by  the  river  in  a  cove,  and  watch'd 
The  high  reed  wave,  and  lifted  up  his  eyes 
And  saw  the  barge  that  brought  her  moving  down,  1380 

Far-off,  a  blot  upon  the  stream,  and  said 
Low  in  himself,  "Ah,  simple  heart  and  sweet, 
Ye  loved  me,  damsel,  surely  with  a  love 
Far  tenderer  than  my  Queen's.     Pray  for  thy  soul  ? 
Ay,  that  will  I.     Farewell  too  —  now  at  last —  1385 

Farewell,  fair  lily.     '  Jealousy  in  love  ?  ' 
Not  rather  dead  love's  harsh  heir,  jealous  pride  ? 
Queen,  if  I  grant  the  jealousy  as  of  love, 
May  not  your  crescent  fear  for  name  and  fame 
Speak,  as  it  waxes,  of  a  love  that  wanes  ?  1390 

Why  did  the  King  dwell  on  my  name  to  me  ? 
Mine  own  name  shames  me,  seeming  a  reproach, 
Lancelot,  whom  the  Lady  of  the  Lake 
Caught  from  his  mother's  arms  —  the  wondrous  one 
Who  passes  thro'  the  vision  of  the  night  —  1395 

She  chanted  snatches  of  mysterious  hymns 
Heard  on  the  winding  waters,  eve  and  morn 


94  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

She  kiss'd  me  saying,  '  Thou  art  fair,  my  child, 

As  a  king's  son,'  and  often  in  her  arms 

She  bare  me,  pacing  on  the  dusky  mere.  1400 

Would  she  had  drown'd  me  in  it,  where'er  it  be ! 

For  what  am  I?  what  profits  me  my  name 

Of  greatest  knight?     I  fought  for  it,  and  have  it: 

Pleasure  to  have  it,  none;  to  lose  it,  pain: 

Now  grown  a  part  of  me :  but  what  use  in  it  ?  1405 

To  make  men  worse  by  making  my  sin  known? 

Or  sin  seem  less,  the  sinner  seeming  great  ? 

Alas  for  Arthur's  greatest  knight,  a  man 

Not  after  Arthur's  heart !     I  needs  must  break 

These  bonds  that  so  defame  me  :  not  without  1410 

She  wills  it :  would  I,  if  she  will'd  it  ?  nay, 

Who  knows  ?  but  if  I  would  not,  then  may  God, 

I  pray  him,  send  a  sudden  angel  down 

To  seize  me  by  the  hair  and  bear  me  far, 

And  fling  me  deep  in  that  forgotten  mere,  1415 

Among  the  tumbled  fragments  of  the  hills." 

So  groan'd  Sir  Lancelot  in  remorseful  pain, 
Not  knowing  he  should  die  a  holy  man. 


THE   PASSING   OF  ARTHUR 

That  story  which  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere, 

First  made  and  latest  left  of  all  the  knights, 

Told,  when  the  man  was  no  more  than  a  voice 

In  the  white  winter  of  his  age,  to  those 

With  whom  he  dwelt,  new  faces,  other  minds.  5 

For  on  their  march  to  westward,  Bedivere, 
Who  slowly  paced  among  the  slumbering  host,. 
Heard  in  his  tent  the  moanings  of  the  King : 

"  I  found  Him  in  the  shining  of  the  stars, 
I  mark'd  Him  in  the  flowering  of  His  fields,  10 

But  in  His  ways  with  men  I  find  Him  not. 
I  waged  His  wars,  and  now  I  pass  and  die. 
O  me  !  for  why  is  all  around  us  here 
As  if  some  lesser  god  had  made  the  world, 
But  had  not  force  to  shape  it  as  he  would,  15 

Till  the  High  God  behold  it  from  beyond, 
And  enter  it,  and  make  it  beautiful? 
Or  else  as  if  the  world  were  wholly  fair, 
But  that  these  eyes  of  men  are  dense  and  dim, 
And  have  not  power  to  see  it  as  it  is :  20 

Perchance,  because  we  see  not  to  the  close  ;  — 
For  I,  being  simple,  thought  to  work  His  will, 
And  have  but  stricken  with  the  sword  in  vain ; 
And  all  whereon  I  lean'd  in  wife  and  friend 
Is  traitor  to  my  peace,  and  all  my  realm  25 

95 


96  IDYLLS  OF  THE   KING 

Reels  back  into  the  beast,  and  is  no  more. 
My  God,  thou  hast  forgotten  me  in  my  death  : 
Nay  —  God  my  Christ  —  I  pass  but  shall  not  die." 

Then,  ere  that  last  weird  battle  in  the  west, 
There  came  on  Arthur  sleeping,  Gawain  kill'd  30 

In  Lancelot's  war,  the  ghost  of  Gawain  blown 
Along  a  wandering  wind,  and  past  his  ear 
Went  shrilling,  "  Hollow,  hollow  all  delight ! 
Hail,  King !  to-morrow  thou  shalt  pass  away. 
Farewell !  there  is  an  isle  of  rest  for  thee.  35 

And  I  am  blown  along  a  wandering  wind, 
And  hollow,  hollow,  hollow  all  delight !  " 
And  fainter  onward,  like  wild  birds  that  change 
Their  season  in  the  night  and  wail  their  way 
From  cloud  to  cloud,  down  the  long  wind  the  dream  40 

Shrill'd  ;  but  in  going  mingled  with  dim  cries 
Far  in  the  moonlit  haze  among  the  hills, 
As  of  some  lonely  city  sack'd  by  night, 
When  all  is  lost,  and  wife  and  child  with  wail 
Pass  to  new  lords  ;  and  Arthur  woke  and  call'd,  45 

"  Who  spake  ?     A  dream.     O  light  upon  the  wind, 
Thine,  Gawain,  was  the  voice  —  are  these  dim  cries 
Thine  ?  or  doth  all  that  haunts  the  waste  and  wild 
Mourn,  knowing  it  will  go  along  with  me  ?  " 

This  heard  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  and  spake :  50 

"  O  me,  my  King,  let  pass  whatever  will, 
Elves,  and  the  harmless  glamour  of  the  field ; 
But  in  their  stead  thy  name  and  glory  cling 
To  all  high  places  like  a  golden  cloud 

For  ever  :  but  as  yet  thou  shalt  not  pass.  55 

Light  was  Gawain  in  life,  and  light  in  death 


THE   PASSING  OF  ARTHUR  97 

Is  Gawain,  for  the  ghost  is  as  the  man ; 

And  care  not  thou  for  dreams  from  him,  but  rise  — 

I  hear  the  steps  of  Modred  in  the  west, 

And  with  him  many  of  thy  people,  and  knights  60 

Once  thine,  whom  thou  hast  loved,  but  grosser  grown 

Than  heathen,  spitting  at  their  vows  and  thee. 

Right  well  in  heart  they  know  thee  for  the  King. 

Arise,  go  forth  and  conquer  as  of  old." 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedivere :  65 

"  Far  other  is  this  battle  in  the  west 
Whereto  we  move  than  when  we  strove  in  youth, 
And  brake  the  petty  kings,  and  fought  with  Rome, 
Or  thrust  the  heathen  from  the  Roman  wall, 
And  shook  him  thro'  the  north.     Ill  doom  is  mine  70 

To  war  against  my  people  and  my  knights. 
The  king  who  fights  his  people  fights  himself. 
And  they  my  knights,  who  loved  me  once,  the  stroke 
That  strikes  them  dead  is  as  my  death  to  me. 
Yet  let  us  hence,  and  find  or  feel  a  way  75 

Thro'  this  blind  haze  which,  ever  since  I  saw 
One  lying  in  the  dust  at  Almesbury, 
Hath  folded  in  the  passes  of  the  world." 

Then  rose  the  King  and  moved  his  host  by  night, 
And  ever  push'd  Sir  Modred,  league  by  league,  80 

Back  to  the  sunset  bound  of  Lycnnesse  — 
A  land  of  old  upheaven  from  the  abyss 
By  fire,  to  sink  into  the  abyss  again ; 
Where  fragments  of  forgotten  peoples  dwelt, 
And  the  long  mountains  ended  in  a  coast  85 

Of  ever-shifting  sand,  and  far  away 
The  phantom  circle  of  a  moaning  sea. 


98  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

There  the  pursuer  could  pursue  no  more, 

And  he  that  fled  no  further  fly  the  King ; 

And  there,  that  day  when  the  great  light  of  heaven  90 

Burn'd  at  his  lowest  in  the  rolling  year, 

On  the  waste  sand  by  the  waste  sea  they  closed. 

Nor  ever  yet  had  Arthur  fought  a  fight 

Like  this  last,  dim,  weird  battle  of  the  west. 

A  death-white  mist  slept  over  sand  and  sea,  95 

Whereof  the  chill,  to  him  who  breathed  it,  drew 

Down  with  his  blood,  till  all  his  heart  was  cold 

With  formless  fear ;  and  even  on  Arthur  fell 

Confusion,  since  he  saw  not  whom  he  fought. 

For  friend  and  foe  were  shadows  in  the  mist,  100 

And  friend  slew  friend  not  knowing  whom  he  slew; 

And  some  had  visions  out  of  golden  youth, 

And  some  beheld  the  faces  of  old  ghosts 

Look  in  upon  the  battle ;  and  in  the  mist 

Was  many  a  noble  deed,  many  a  base,  105 

And  chance  and  craft  and  strength  in  single  fights, 

And  ever  and  anon  with  host  to  host 

Shocks,  and  the  splintering  spear,  the  hard  mail  hewn, 

Shield-breakings,  and  the  clash  of  brands,  the  crash 

Of  battle-axes  on  shatter'd  helms,  and  shrieks  no 

After  the  Christ,  of  those  who  falling  down 

Look'd  up  for  heaven,  and  only  saw  the  mist; 

And  shouts  of  heathen  and  the  traitor  knights, 

Oaths,  insult,  filth,  and  monstrous  blasphemies, 

Sweat,  wri things,  anguish,  laboring  of  the  lungs  115 

In  that  close  mist,  and  cryings  for  the  light, 

Moans  of  the  dying,  and  voices  of  the  dead 

Last,  as  by  some  one  deathbed  after  wail 
Of  suffering,  silence  follows,  or  thro'  death 


THE   PASSING   OF  ARTHUR  99 

Or  deathlike  swoon,  thus  over  all  that  shore,  120 

Save  for  some  whisper  of  the  seething  seas, 

A  dead  hush  fell ;  but  when  the  dolorous  day 

Grew  drearier  toward  twilight  falling,  came 

A  bitter  wind,  clear  from  the  north,  and  blew 

The  mist  aside,  and  with  that  wind  the  tide  125 

Rose,  and  the  pale  King  glanced  across  the  field 

Of  battle :  but  no  man  was  moving  there; 

Nor  any  cry  of  Christian  heard  thereon, 

Nor  yet  of  heathen ;  only  the  wan  wave 

Brake  in  among  dead  faces,  to  and  fro  130 

Swaying  the  helpless  hands,  and  up  and  down 

Tumbling  the  hollow  helmets  of  the  fallen, 

And  shiver'd  brands  that  once  had  fought  with  Rome, 

And  rolling  far  along  the  gloomy  shores 

The  voice  of  days  of  old  and  days  to  be.  135 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedivere, 
And  whiter  than  the  mist  that  all  day  long 
Had  held  the  field  of  battle  was  the  King : 

"  Hearest  thou  this  great  voice  that  shakes  the  world, 
And  wastes  the  narrow  realm  whereon  we  move,  140 

And  beats  upon  the  faces  of  the  dead, 
My  dead,  as  tho'  they  had  not  died  for  me  ?  — 
O  Bedivere,  for  on  my  heart  hath  fallen 
Confusion,  till  I  know  not  what  I  am, 

Nor  whence  I  am,  nor  whether  I  be  King;  145 

Behold,  I  seem  but  King  among  the  dead." 

Then  spake  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  :  "  My  King, 
King  everywhere  !  and  so  the  dead  have  kings, 
There  also  will  I  worship  thee  as  King. 


100  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Yet  still  thy  life  is  whole,  and  still  I  live  150 

Who  love  thee ;  but  who  hates  thee,  he  that  brought 
The  heathen  back  among  us,  yonder  stands, 
Modred,  unharm'd,  the  traitor  of  thine  house." 

Then  spake  the  King :  "  My  house  hath  been  my  doom. 
But  call  not  thou  this  traitor  of  my  house  155 

Who  hath  but  dwelt  beneath  one  roof  with  me. 
My  house  are  rather  they  who  sware  my  vows, 
Yea,  even  while  they  brake  them,  own'd  me  King. 
And  well  for  thee,  saying  in  my  dark  hour, 
When  all  the  purport  of  my  throne  hath  fail'd,  160 

That  quick  or  dead  thou  boldest  me  for  King. 
King  am  I,  whatsoever  be  their  cry ; 
And  one  last  act  of  kinghood  shalt  thou  see 
Yet,  ere  I  pass."     And  uttering  this  the  King 
Made  at  the  man  :  then  Modred  smote  his  liege  165 

Hard  on  that  helm  which  many  a  heathen  sword 
Had  beaten  thin  ;  while  Arthur  at  one  blow, 
Striking  the  last  stroke  with  Excalibur, 
Slew  him,  and,  all  but  slain  himself,  he  fell. 

So  all  day  long  the  noise  of  battle  roll'd  170 

Among  the  mountains  by  the  winter  sea ; 
Until  King  Arthur's  Table,  man  by  man, 
Had  fall'n  in  Lyonnesse  about  their  lord, 
King  Arthur.     Then,  because  his  wound  was  deep, 
The  bold  Sir  Bedivere  uplifted  him,  175 

And  bore  him  to  a  chapel  nigh  the  field, 
A  broken  chancel  with  a  broken  cross, 
That  stood  on  a  dark  strait  of  barren  land : 
On  one  side  lay  the  Ocean,  and  on  one 
Lay  a  great  water,  and  the  moon  was  full.  180 


THE   PASSING   OF   ARTHUR  IOI 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedivere : 
"  The  sequel  of  to-day  unsolders  all 
The  goodliest  fellowship  of  famous  knights 
Whereof  this  world  holds  record.     Such  a  sleep 
They  sleep  —  the  men  I  loved.     I  think  that  we  185 

Shall  never  more,  at  any  future  time, 
Delight  our  souls  with  talk  of  knightly  deeds, 
Walking  about  the  gardens  and  the  halls 
Of  Camelot,  as  in  the  days  that  were. 

I  perish  by  this  people  which  I  made, —  190 

Tho'  Merlin  sware  that  I  should  come  again 
To  rule  once  more ;  but,  let  what  will  be,  be, 
I  am  so  deeply  smitten  thro'  the  helm 
That  without  help  I  cannot  last  till  morn. 
Thou  therefore  take  my  brand  Excalibur,  195 

Which  was  my  pride  :  for  thou  rememberest  how 
In  those  old  days,  one  summer  noon,  an  arm 
Rose  up  from  out  the  bosom  of  the  lake, 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonderful, 
Holding  the  sword  —  and  how  I  row'd  across  200 

And  took  it,  and  have  worn  it,  like  a  king ; 
And,  wheresoever  I  am  sung  or  told 
In  aftertime,  this  also  shall  be  known : 
But  now  delay  not :  take  Excalibur, 

And  fling  him  far  into  the  middle  mere ;  205 

Watch  what  thou  seest,  and  lightly  bring  me  word." 

To  him  replied  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere : 
"  It  is  not  meet,  Sir  King,  to  leave  thee  thus, 
Aidless,  alone,  and  smitten  thro'  the  helm  — 
A  little  thing  may  harm  a  wounded  man;  210 

Yet  I  thy  hest  will  all  perform  at  full, 
Watch  what  I  see,  and  lightly  bring  thee  word." 


102  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

So  saying,  from  the  ruin'd  shrine  he  stept, 
And  in  the  moon  athwart  the  place  of  tombs, 
Where  lay  the  mighty  bones  of  ancient  men,  215 

Old  knights,  and  over  them  the  sea-wind  sang 
Shrill,  chill,  with  flakes  of  foam.     He,  stepping  down 
By  zigzag  paths  and  juts  of  pointed  rock, 
Came  on  the  shining  levels  of  the  lake. 

There  drew  he  forth  the  brand  Excalibur,  220 

And  o'er  him,  drawing  it,  the  winter  moon, 
Brightening  the  skirts  of  a  long  cloud,  ran  forth 
And  sparkled  keen  with  frost  against  the  hilt ; 
For  all  the  haft  twinkled  with  diamond  sparks, 
Myriads  of  topaz-lights,  and  jacinth-work  225 

Of  subtlest  jewellery.     He  gazed  so  long 
That  both  his  eyes  were  dazzled  as  he  stood, 
This  way  and  that  dividing  the  swift  mind, 
In  act  to  throw  :  but  at  last  it  seem'd 

Better  to  leave  Excalibur  conceal'd  230 

There  in  the  many-knotted  water-flags, 
That  whistled  stiff  and  dry  about  the  marge. 
So  strode  he  back  slow  to  the  wounded  King. 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedivere  : 
"Hast  thou  perform'd  my  mission  which  I  gave?  235 

What  is  it  thou  hast  seen?  or  what  hast  heard?" 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  : 
"I  heard  the  ripple  washing  in  the  reeds, 
And  the  wild  water  lapping  on  the  crag." 

To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  faint  and  pale :  240 

"Thou  hast  betray'd  thy  nature  and  thy  name, 
Not  rendering  true  answer,  as  beseem'd 


THE   PASSING   OF  ARTHUR  103 

Thy  fealty,  nor  like  a  noble  knight ; 

For  surer  sign  had  follow'd,  either  hand, 

Or  voice,  or  else  a  motion  of  the  mere.  245 

This  is  a  shameful  thing  for  men  to  lie. 

Yet  now,  I  charge  thee,  quickly  go  again, 

As  thou  art  lief  and  dear,  and  do  the  thing 

I  bade  thee,  watch,  and  lightly  bring  me  word. " 

Then  went  Sir  Bedivere  the  second  time  250 

Across  the  ridge,  and  paced  beside  the  mere, 
Counting  the  dewy  pebbles,  fix'd  in  thought ; 
But  when  he  saw  the  wonder  of  the  hilt, 
How  curiously  and  strangely  chased,  he  smote 
His  palms  together,  and  he  cried  aloud:  255 

"And  if  indeed  I  cast  the  brand  away, 
Surely  a  precious  thing,  one  worthy  note, 
Should  thus  be  lost  for  ever  from  the  earth, 
Which  might  have  pleased  the  eyes  of  many  men. 
What  good  should  follow  this,  if  this  were  done  ?  260 

What  harm,  undone  ?     Deep  harm  to  disobey, 
Seeing  obedience  is  the  bond  of  rule. 
Were  it  well  to  obey  then,  if  a  king  demand 
An  act  unprofitable,  against  himself? 

The  King  is  sick,  and  knows  not  what  he  does.  265 

What  record  or  what  relic  of  my  lord 
Should  be  to  aftertime,  but  empty  breath 
And  rumors  of  a  doubt  ?     But  were  this  kept, 
Stored  in  some  treasure-house  of  mighty  kings, 
Some  one  might  show  it  at  a  joust  of  arms,  270 

Saying:  'King  Arthur's  sword,  Excalibur, 
Wrought  by  the  lonely  maiden  of  the  Lake. 
Nine  years  she  wrought  it,  sitting  in  the  deeps 


104  IDYLLS   OF   THE   KING 

Upon  the  hidden  bases  of  the  hills.' 

So  might  some  old  man  speak  in  the  aftertime  275 

To  all  the  people,  winning  reverence. 

But  now  much  honor  and  much  fame  were  lost." 

So  spake  he,  clouded  with  his  own  conceit, 
And  hid  Excalibur  the  second  time 
And  so  strode  back  slow  to  the  wounded  King.  280 

Then  spoke  King  Arthur,  breathing  heavily : 
"What  is  it  thou  hast  seen  ?  or  what  hast  heard?" 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere : 
"I  heard  the  water  lapping  on  the  crag, 
And  the  long  ripple  washing  in  the  reeds."  285 

To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  much  in  wrath: 
"Ah,  miserable  and  unkind,  untrue, 
Unknightly,  traitor-hearted  !     Woe  is  me  ! 
Authority  forgets  a  dying  king, 

Laid  widow'd  of  the  power  in  his  eye  290 

That  bow'd  the  will.     I  see  thee  what  thou  art, 
For  thou,  the  latest-left  of  all  my  knights, 
In  whom  should  meet  the  offices  of  all, 
Thou  wouldst  betray  me  for  the  precious  hilt ;' 
Either  from  lust  of  gold,  or  like  a  girl  295 

Valuing  the  giddy  pleasure  of  the  eyes. 
Yet,  for  a  man  may  fail  in  duty  twice, 
And  the  third  time  may  prosper,  get  thee  hence : 
But,  if  thou  spare  to  fling  Excalibur, 
I  will  arise  and  slay  thee  with  my  hands."  300 

Then  quickly  rose  Sir  Bedivere,  and  ran, 
And,  leaping  down  the  ridges  lightly,  plunged 


THE   PASSING  OF  ARTHUR  105 

Among  the  bulrush  beds,  and  clutch'd  the  sword, 

And  strongly  wheel'd  and  threw  it.     The  great  brand 

Made  lightnings  in  the  splendor  of  the  moon,  305 

And  flashing  round  and  round,  and  whirl'd  in  an  arch, 

Shot  like  a  streamer  of  the  northern  morn, 

Seen  where  the  moving  isles  of  winter  shock 

By  night,  with  noises  of  the  Northern  Sea. 

So  flash'd  and  fell  the  brand  Excalibur;  310 

But  ere  he  dipt  the  surface,  rose  an  arm 

Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonderful, 

And  caught  him  by  the  hilt,  and  brandish'd  him 

Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the  mere. 

And  lightly  went  the  other  to  the  King.  315 

Then  spoke  King  Arthur,  drawing  thicker  breath : 
"Now  see  I  by  thine  eyes  that  this  is  done. 
Speak  out :  what  is  it  thou  hast  heard,  or  seen?" 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  : 
"  Sir  King,  I  closed  mine  eyelids,  lest  the  gems  320 

Should  blind  my  purpose,  for  I  never  saw, 
Nor  shall  see,  here  or  elsewhere,  till  I  die, 
Nor  tho'  I  live  three  lives  of  mortal  men, 
So  great  a  miracle  as  yonder  hilt. 

Then  with  both  hands  I  flung  him,  wheeling  him ;  325 

But  when  I  look'd  again,  behold  an  arm, 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonderful, 
That  caught  him  by  the  hilt,  and  brandish'd  him 
Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the  mere." 

And  answer  made  King  Arthur,  breathing  hard :  330 

"My  end  draws  nigh;  'tis  time  that  I  were  gone. 
Make  broad  thy  shoulders  to  receive  my  weight, 


106  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

And  bear  me  to  the  margin ;  yet  I  fear 

My  wound  hath  taken  cold,  and  I  shall  die." 

So  saying,  from  the  pavement  he  half  rose,  335 

Slowly,  with  pain,  reclining  on  his  arm, 
And  looking  wistfully  with  wide  blue  eyes 
As  in  a  picture.     Him  Sir  Bedivere 
Remorsefully  regarded  thro'  his  tears, 

And  would  have  spoken,  but  he  found  not  words ;  340 

Then  took  with  care,  and  kneeling  on  one  knee, 
O'er  both  his  shoulders  drew  the  languid  hands, 
And  rising  bore  him  thro'  the  place  of  tombs. 

But,  as  he  walk'd,  King  Arthur  panted  hard, 
Like  one  that  feels  a  nightmare  on  his  bed  345 

When  all  the  house  is  mute.     So  sigh'd  the  King, 
Muttering  and  murmuring  at  his  ear,  "  Quick,  quick ! 
I  fear  it  is  too  late,  and  I  shall  die." 
But  the  other  swiftly  strode  from  ridge  to  ridge, 
Clothed  with  his  breath,  and  looking,  as  he  walk'd,  350 

Larger  than  human  on  the  frozen  hills. 
He  heard  the  deep  behind  him,  and  a  cry 
Before.     His  own  thought  drove  him  like  a  goad. 
Dry  clash'd  his  harness  in  the  icy  caves 
And  barren  chasms,  and  all  to  left  and  right  355 

The  bare  black  cliff  clang'd  round  him,  as  he  based 
His  feet  on  juts  of  slippery  crag  that  rang 
Sharp-smitten  with  the  dint  of  armed  heels  — 
And  on  a  sudden,  lo,  the  level  lake, 
And  the  long  glories  of  the  winter  moon  !  360 

Then  saw  they  how  there  hove  a  dusky  barge, 
Dark  as  a  funeral  scarf  from  stem  to  stern, 


THE   PASSING   OF  ARTHUR  107 

Beneath  them  ;  and  descending  they  were  ware 

That  all  the  decks  were  dense  with  stately  forms, 

Black-stoled,  black-hooded,  like  a  dream  —  by  these          365 

Three  Queens  with  crowns  of  gold :  and  from  them  rose 

A  cry  that  shiver'd  to  the  tingling  stars, 

And,  as  it  were  one  voice,  an  agony 

Of  lamentation,  like  a  wind  that  shrills 

All  night  in  a  waste  land,  where  no  one  comes,  370 

Or  hath  come,  since  the  making  of  the  world. 

Then  murmur'd  Arthur,  "  Place  me  in  the  barge." 
So  to  the  barge  they  came.     There  those  three  Queens 
Put  forth  their  hands,  and  took  the  King,  and  wept. 
But  she,  that  rose  the  tallest  of  them  all  375 

And  fairest,  laid  his  head  upon  her  lap, 
And  loosed  the  shatter'd  casque,  and  chafed  his  hands, 
And  call'd  him  by  his  name,  complaining  loud, 
And  dropping  bitter  tears  against  a  brow 
Striped  with  dark  blood  :  for  all  his  face  was  white  380 

And  colorless,  and  like  the  wither'd  moon 
Smote  by  the  fresh  beam  of  the  springing  east ; 
And  all  his  greaves  and  cuisses  dash'd  with  drops 
Of  onset;  and  the  light  and  lustrous  curls  — 
That  made  his  forehead  like  a  rising  sun  385 

High  from  the  dais-throne  —  were  parch'd  with  dust, 
Or,  clotted  into  points  and  hanging  loose, 
Mixt  with  the  knightly  growth  that  fringed  his  lips. 
So  like  a  shatter'd  column  lay  the  King ; 
Not  like  that  Arthur  who,  with  lance  in  rest,  390 

From  spur  to  plume  a  star  of  tournament, 
Shot  thro'  the  lists  at  Camelot,  and  charged 
Before  the  eyes  of  ladies  and  of  kings. 


108  IDYLLS   OF  THE   KING 

Then  loudly  cried  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere : 
"Ah !  my  Lord  Arthur,  whither  shall  I  go  ?  395 

Where  shall  I  hide  my  forehead  and  my  eyes  ? 
For  now  I  see  the  true  old  times  are  dead, 
When  every  morning  brought  a  noble  chance, 
And  every  chance  brought  out  a  noble  knight. 
Such  times  have  been  not  since  the  light  that  led  40o 

The  holy  Elders  with  the  gift  of  myrrh. 
But  now  the  whole  Round  Table  is  dissolved 
Which  was  an  image  of  the  mighty  world, 
And  I,  the  last,  go  forth  companionless, 
And  the  days  darken  round  me,  and  the  years,  405 

Among  new  men,  strange  faces,  other  minds." 

And  slowly  answer'd  Arthur  from  the  barge : 
"  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 

Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world.  410 

Comfort  thyself :  what  comfort  is  in  me  ? 
I  have  lived  my  life,  and  that  which  I  have  done 
May  He  within  himself  make  pure !  but  thou, 
If  thou  shouldst  never  see  my  face  again, 
Pray  for  my  soul.     More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer     415 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore,  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer  420 

Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God. 
But  now  farewell.     I  am  going  a  long  way 
With  these  thou  seest  —  if  indeed  I  go  —  425 


THE   PASSING  OF   ARTHUR  109 

For  all  my  mind  is  clouded  with  a  doubt  — 

To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion ; 

Where  falls  not  hail,  or  rain,  or  any  snow, 

Nor  ever  wind  blows  loudly ;  but  it  lies 

Deep-meadow'd,  happy,  fair  with  orchard  lawns  430 

And  bowery  hollows  crown'd  with  summer  sea, 

Where  I  will  heal  me  of  my  grievous  wound." 

So  said  he,  and  the  barge  with  oar  and  sail 
Moved  from  the  brink,  like  some  full-breasted  swan 
That,  fluting  a  wild  carol  ere  her  death,  435 

Ruffles  her  pure  cold  plume,  and  takes  the  flood 
With  swarthy  webs.     Long  stood  Sir  Bedivere 
Revolving  many  memories,  till  the  hull 
Look'd  one  black  dot  against  the  verge  of  dawn, 
And  on  the  mere  the  wailing  died  away.  440 

But  when  that  moan  had  past  for  evermore, 
The  stillness  of  the  dead  world's  winter  dawn 
Amazed  him,  and  he  groan'd,  "  The  King  is  gone." 
And  therewithal  came  on  him  the  weird  rhyme, 
"  From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes."  445 

Whereat  he  slowly  turn'd  and  slowly  clomb 
The  last  hard  footstep  of  that  iron  crag ; 
Thence  mark'd  the  black  hull  moving  yet,  and  cried, 
"  He  passes  to  be  King  among  the  dead, 
And  after  healing  of  his  grievous  wound  450 

He  comes  again ;  but  —  if  he  come  no  more  — 
O  me,  be  yon  dark  Queens  in  yon  black  boat, 
Who  shriek'd  and  wail'd,  the  three  whereat  we  gazed 
On  that  high  day,  when,  clothed  with  living  light, 
They  stood  before  his  throne  in  silence,  friends  455 

Of  Arthur,  who  should  help  him  at  his  need  ? " 


110  IDYLLS    OF   THE   KING 

Then  from  the  dawn  it  seem'd  there  came,  but  faint 
As  from  beyond  the  limit  of  the  world, 
Like  the  last  echo  born  of  a  great  cry, 
Sounds,  as  if  some  fair  city  were  one  voice  460 

Around  a  king  returning  from  his  wars. 

Thereat  once  more  he  moved  about,  and  clomb 
Ev'n  to  the  highest  he  could  climb,  and  saw, 
Straining  his  eyes  beneath  an  arch  of  hand, 
Or  thought  he  saw,  the  speck  that  bare  the  King,  465 

Down  that  long  water  opening  on  the  deep 
Somewhere  far  off,  pass  on  and  on,  and  go 
From  less  to  less  and  vanish  into  light. 
And  the  new  sun  rose  bringing  the  new  year. 


NOTES 


GARETH   AN-D   LYNETTE 

1  1.    Lot :  king  of  Orkney. 

1  l.  Bellicent :  queen  of  Orkney,  daughter  of  Uther  and  Ygerne, 
half-sister  of  King  Arthur. 

1  2.  Gareth :  nephew  to  King  Arthur.  Malory  causes  Sir  Kay  to 
dub  him  Beaumains  or  Fairhands ;  and  describes  him  as  "  large,  and 
long,  and  broad  in  the  shoulders,  and  well-visaged,  and  the  fairest  and 
largest  hand  that  ever  man  saw." 

1  2.  Spring :  in  the  allegory  of  "  The  Year "  Gareth  and  Lynette 
represent  the  springtime. 

1  3.   Spate:  a  flood  or  freshet. 

1  18.   Yield:  reward. 

1  20.   Discaged:  uncaged.     The  figure  begins  with  1.  14. 

2  25.   Gawain :  son  to  Bellicent,  half-brother  to  Gareth. 

2  26.  Modred.  Some  of  the  old  legends  make  him  the  son  of  Arthur 
and  his  half-sister,  Bellicent.  Arthur  did  not  know  that  she  was  related 
to  him ;  yet  Nemesis  follows  him,  for  Modred  finally  gives  the  King  his 
death  blow.  See  The  Passing  of  Arthur,  1.  165. 

2  27.  Proven :  tried  or  put  to  test. 

2  32.  Sullen.  This  word  foreshadows.  Modred  finally  proves  a  traitor 
to  his  King. 

2  40.  An :  if. 

2  40.  Goose  and  golden  eggs.  For  the  story  see  Tennyson's  poem, 
The  Goose. 

2  46.  Book  of  Hours :  a  book  which  contained  the  prayers  prescribed 
by  the  Church  for  the  various  hours  of  the  day  or  week.  The  pages 
of  the  book  were  illuminated  in  colors  with  gilded  initials  and  pictures. 

2  47.   Haunting :  lingering. 

2  51.  Leash  of  kings :  three  or  more.  Originally  leash  meant  the 
line  with  which  the  hunter  held  his  three  greyhounds ;  then  by  metonymy 


112  NOTES 

it  came  to  be  used  for  the  hounds  themselves,  and  later  for  a  pack  of 
hounds. 

3  56.   Clomb :  climbed. 

3  56.  Brake :  broke. 

366.   Excalibur:  King  Arthur's  sword, — 

the  sword 

That  rose  from  out  the  bosom  of  the  lake, 
And  Arthur  row'd  across  and  took  it  —  rich 
With  jewels,  elfin  Urim,  on  the  hilt, 
Bewildering  heart  and  eye  —  the  blade  so  bright 
That  men  are  blinded  by  it  —  on  one  side, 
Graven  in  the  oldest  tongue  of  all  this  world, 
"  Take  me,"  but  turn  the  blade  and  ye  shall  see, 
And  written  in  the  speech  ye  speak  yourself, 
"  Cast  me  away  I " 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  295-304. 

3  76.  The  barons'  war. 

For  while  he  [King  Arthur]  linger'd  there, 
[At  the  court  of  Guinevere's  father] 
A  doubt  that  ever  smoulder'd  in  the  hearts 
Of  those  great  Lords  and  Barons  of  his  realm 
Flash'd  forth  and  into  war :  for  most  of  these, 
Colleaguing  with  a  score  of  petty  kings, 
Made  head  against  him,  crying,  "  Who  is  he 
That  he  should  rule  us  ?  who  hath  proven  him 
King  Uther's  son  ?  for  lo !  we  look  at  him, 
And  find  nor  face  nor  bearing,  limbs  nor  voice, 
Are  like  to  those  of  Uther  whom  we  knew." 


So  when  the  King  had  set  his  banner  broad, 
At  once  from  either  side,  with  trumpet-blast, 
And  shouts,  and  clarions  shrilling  unto  blood, 
The  long-lanced  battle  let  their  horses  run. 
And  now  the  Barons  and  the  Kings  prevail'd, 
And  now  the  King,  as  here  and  there  that  war 
Went  swaying;  but  the  Powers  who  walk  the  world 
Made  lightnings  and  great  thunders  over  him, 
And  dazed  all  eyes,  till  Arthur  by  main  might, 
And  mightier  of  his  hands  with  every  blow, 
And  leading  all  his  knighthood  threw  the  kings 
Carddos,  Urien,  Cradlemont  of  Wales, 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE  113 

Claudius,  and  Clariance  of  Northumberland, 
The  King  Brandagoras  of  Latangor, 
With  Anguisant  of  Erin,  Morganore, 
And  Lot  of  Orkney. 

Tlie  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  62-71  and  100-117. 

4  85.  Jousts :  military  contests  where  two  knights  on  horseback 
attacked  each  other  with  blunted  lances.  See  Scott's  account  of  a 
tournament  in  Ivanhoe. 

4  88.  Tourney  :  a  contest  of  armed  men  with  swords,  lances,  or  other 
weapons. 

4  90.   Burns :  streams. 

4  105.   Good  lack :  Good  Lord. 

4  116.   Follow  the  Christ:  in  speaking  of  the  oath  he  exacted  from 
his  knights,  King  Arthur  is  made  to  say: 

I  made  them  lay  their  hands  in  mine  and  swear 

To  reverence  the  King,  as  if  he  were 

Their  conscience,  and  their  conscience  as  their  King, 

To  break  the  heathen  and  uphold  the  Christ, 

To  ride  abroad  redressing  human  wrongs, 

To  speak  no  slander,  no,  nor  listen  to  it, 

To  honor  his  own  word  as  if  his  God's, 

To  lead  sweet  lives  in  purest  chastity, 

To  love  one  maiden  only,  cleave  to  her, 

And  worship  her  by  years  of  noble  deeds, 

Until  they  won  her. 

Guinevere,  11.  464-474. 

5  128.    Cloud  that  settles  round  his  birth:  Uther,  Arthur's  prede- 
cessor and  reputed  father,  slew  Gorlois,  a  neighboring  king,  and  took  to 
wife  his  widow,  Ygeme,  the  mother  of  Bellicent. 

afterward, 

Not  many  moons,  King  Uther  died  himself, 
Moaning  and  wailing  for  an  heir  to  rule 
After  him,  lest  the  realm  should  go  to  wrack. 
And  that  same  night,  the  night  of  the  new  year, 
By  reason  of  the  bitterness  and  grief 
That  vext  his  mother,  all  before  his  time 
Was  Arthur  born,  and  all  as  soon  as  bora 
Deliver'd  at  a  secret  postern-gate 
To  Merlin,  to  be  holden  far  apart 
Until  his  hour  should  come. 


114  NOTES 

"  But  let  me  tell  thee  now  another  tale,"  continued  Bellicent,  who  had 
related  to  Leodogran  the  above  story  of  Arthur's  origin : 

on  the  night 

When  Uther  in  Tintagil  past  away 
Moaning  and  wailing  for  an  heir,  the  two 
Left  the  still  King,  and  passing  forth  to  breathe, 
Then  from  the  castle  gateway  by  the  chasm 
Descending  thro'  the  dismal  night  —  a  night 
In  which  the  bounds  of  heaven  and  earth  were  lost  — 
Beheld,  so  high  upon  the  dreary  deeps 
It  seem'd  in  heaven,  a  ship,  the  shape  thereof 
A  dragon  wing'd,  and  all  from  stem  to  stem 
Bright  with  a  shining  people  on  the  decks, 
And  gone  as  soon  as  seen.     And  then  the  two 
Dropt  to  the  cove,  and  watch'd  the  great  sea  fall, 
Wave  after  wave,  each  mightier  than  the  last, 
Till  last,  a  ninth  one,  gathering  half  the  deep 
And  full  of  voices,  slowly  rose  and  plunged 
Roaring,  and  all  the  wave  was  in  a  flame : 
And  down  the  wave  and  in  the  flame  was  borne 
A  naked  babe,  and  rode  to  Merlin's  feet, 
Who  stoopt  and  caught  the  babe,  and  cried  "  The  King  ! 
Here  is  an  heir  for  Uther! " 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  204-214  and  364-385. 

For  there  be  those  who  hate  him  in  their  hearts, 
Call  him  baseborn,  and  since  his  ways  are  sweet, 
And  theirs  are  bestial,  hold  him  less  than  man : 
And  there  be  those  who  deem  him  more  than  man, 
And  dream  he  dropt  from  heaven. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  178-182. 

5  131.  Yield:  allow. 

5  133-134.   Who  swept,  etc.    Arthur  was  King  of  Britain  in  the  sixth 
century.     The  Romans  abandoned  England  early  in  the  fifth.     Thus 
Arthur  "  swept  the  dust  of  ruined  Rome  from  off  the  threshold  of  the 
realm,"  and  met  and  defeated  the  invading  Saxons.     He  was  the  cham- 
pion of  Christianity  against  the  surrounding  heathen  "idolaters." 

6  151.   Knave :  boy  or  servant. 

6  152.  Bar :  a  rail  or  board,  across  which  food  was  passed  from  the 
kitchen  into  the  dining  room. 

6  157.  Villain  (adj.) :  slavish;  villain  (noun):  a  member  of  the  lowest 
unfree  class  of  serfs. 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  115 

6  162.   Thrall:  slave. 

6  172.   Perplext:  interfered  with. 

7  185.   Camelot.    "  On  the  latest  limit  of  the  West,  in  the  land  of 
Lyonnesse,  where  save  the  rocky  Isles  of  Stilly,  all  is  now  wild  sea, 
rose  the  sacred  Mount  of  Camelot.     It  rose  from  the  deeps,  with  gar- 
dens and  bowers,  and  palaces,  and  at  the  top  of  the  mount  was  King 
Arthur's  hall  and  the  holy  minster  with  the  cross  of  gold."  —  A  prose 
sketch  found  among  Tennyson's  papers,  quoted  by  Dr.  Vlymen. 

7  187.  Royal  mount.  "  The  Mount  was  the  most  beautiful  in  the 
world,  sometimes  green  and  fresh  in  the  beam  of  morning,  sometimes 
all  one  splendor,  folded  in  the  golden  mists  of  the  West.  But  all  under- 
neath was  hollow  and  the  mountain  trembled,  when  the  seas  rushed 
bellowing  through  the  porphyry  caves ;  and  there  ran  a  prophecy  that 
the  mountain  and  the  city  on  some  wild  morning  would  topple  into  th« 
abyss  and  be  no  more."  —  Manuscript  of  Tennyson. 

7  202.   Glamour  :  enchantment. 

7  202.   Merlin : 

the  most  famous  man  of  all  those  times, 
Merlin,  who  knew  the  range  of  all  their  arts, 
Had  built  the  King  his  havens,  ships,  and  halls, 
Was  also  Bard,  and  knew  the  starry  heavens ; 
The  people  call'd  him  Wizard. 

Merlin  and  Vivien,  11.  164-168. 

And  there  I  saw  mage  Merlin,  whose  vast  wit 
And  hundred  winters  are  but  as  the  hands 
Of  loyal  vassals  toiling  for  their  liege. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  279-281. 

8  212.  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

Who  knows  a  subtler  magic  than  his  [Merlin's]  own  — 

Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonderful. 

She  gave  the  King  his  huge  cross-hilted  sword, 

Whereby  to  drive  the  heathen  out :  a  mist 

Of  incense  curl'd  about  her,  and  her  face 

Wellnigh  was  hidden  in  the  minster  gloom ; 

But  there  was  heard  among  the  holy  hymns 

A  voice  as  of  the  waters,  for  she  dwells 

Down  in  a  deep ;  calm,  whatsoever  storms 

May  shake  the  world,  and  when  the  surface  rolls, 

Hath  power  to  walk  the  waters  like  our  Lord. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  282-293. 


Il6  NOTES 

8  219.  Sacred  fish.  "  The  fish  was  adopted  by  the  early  Church  as 
its  sacred  symbol,  because  the  Greek  word  for  fish  [IX6TS],  which  con- 
tains the  initial  letters  of  the  name  and  titles  of  Christ  [  Iri<rbs  Xpto-ros, 
0eoO  TZ6j,  SWT^P  ;  Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  Saviour],  contains  also  the 
initial  letters  of  some  prophetic  lines  ascribed  to  the  Sibyl  of  Erythra." 
—  Lecky,  European  Morals,  I,  400. 

8  225.   Three  queens.    At  the  crowning  of  Arthur,  there  were 

three  fair  queens 

Who  stood  in  silence  near  his  throne,  the  friends 
Of  Arthur,  gazing  on  him,  tall,  with  bright 
Sweet  faces,  who  will  help  him  at  his  need. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  275-278. 

Malory  says,  "One  was  King  Arthur's  sister,  Queen  Morgan  le  Fayv 
another  was  the  Queen  of  Northgales  ;  the  third  was  the  Queen  of  th» 
Waste  Lands." 

8229.     Boughts:  coils. 

9  248.   Seer  :  one  who  sees  or  foresees ;  a  prophet. 

9  249-251.  The  seer  is  describing  a  mirage,  an  optical  illusion  appar- 
ently elevating  objects  into  the  sky  and  inverting  them. 

9  256.  Sacred  mountain  :  Parnassus  ;  in  Greek  mythology  the  home 
of  Apollo  and  the  Muses. 

9  258.   And  built  it  to  the  music  of  their  harps.     So,  legend  says, 
Apollo  built  Troy. 

Like  that  strange  song  I  heard  Apollo  sing, 
While  Ilion  like  a  mist  rose  into  towers. 

Titkonus,  11.  62,  63. 

10271.  Enow:  enough. 

10  280.   Riddling  of  the  Bards.     The   bards   or  poets   of  ancient 
Britain  were  supposed  to  have  the  gift  of  prophecy.     Their  prophetic 
utterances  were  often  expressed  in  language  that  could  bear  a  double 
interpretation.     The  predictions  would  thus  be  fulfilled  whichever  way 
the  events  ended.    The  following  is  an  example  of  a  "  riddling  triplet." 

Rain,  rain,  and  sun !  a  rainbow  in  the  sky ! 
A  young  man  will  be  wiser  by  and  by ; 
An  old  man's  wit  may  wander  ere  he  die. 

Rain,  rain,  and  sun  !  a  rainbow  on  the  leal 
And  truth  is  this  to  me,  and  that  to  thee ; 
And  truth  or  clothed  or  naked  let  it  be. 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  1 17 

Rain,  sun,  and  rain  !  and  the  free  blossom  blows  : 
Sun,  rain,  and  sun  !  and  where  is  he  who  knows  ? 
From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  402-410. 
10  287.   Brook  :  endure. 

10  293.   She,  nor  I :  give  the  syntax. 

11  298.   Did  their  days  in  stone  :  inscribed  their  deeds  on  stone. 
11  314.   Delivering  doom  :  passing  decrees  or  administering  justice. 

11  321.   Ranged  :  stood  in  order. 

12  333.   Whether  :  which  of  two. 

12  337.  Uther  :  Arthur's  predecessor  and  reputed  father. 

12339.  Say:  report. 

12  340.  Who  :  give  the  syntax. 

12  348.  Held  with  these  :  sided  with  the  barons. 

12  351.  Standeth  seized  :  has  seized  and  still  holds  possession  of. 

12  355.  Wreak :  avenge. 

13  359.  Sir  Kay  :  King  Arthur's  foster  brother. 
13  359.  Seneschal :  steward. 

13  362.  Gyve :  fetter. 

13  362.  Gyve  and  gag :  send  her  to  the  ducking  stool,  the  punish- 
ment for  a  woman  who  could  not  control  her  tongue. 

13  366.   Had  :  would  have. 

13  367.  Aurelius  Emrys.  Ambrosius  Aurelianus  was  emperor  in 
Britain,  Gaul,  and  Spain,  under  Honorius  (about  440).  The  Arthu- 
rian legends  make  him  brother  of  Uther,  whom  he  preceded  on  the 
throne. 

13  380.   Charlock  :  wild  mustard. 

14  386.   Tristram.     Sir  Tristram  of  Lyonnesse  was  nephew  to  King 
Mark,  the  word  "  cousin  "  being  used  in  its  older  sense  of  kinsman. 
He  was  in  love  with  Mark's  wife,  Iseult  (i-sblt'). 

14  398.   Blazon'd  :  given  their  heraldic  colors. 

14  411.   Reave  :  deprive. 

15  419.   Churl :  a  peasant. 

15  422.  Lap  him  up  in  cloth  of  lead  :  roll  him  in  his  coffin,  in  those 
days  made  of  lead. 

15  423.   Craven :  a  mean  coward. 

15  445.   Lichen  :  a  plant  that  often  fastens  itself  to  rock  or  stone  or 
root.     It  will  corrode  the  hardest  rock  or  kill  the  thriftiest  plant. 

16  447.   Wot :  knows. 

16  447.   Brewis  :  broth  or  pottage. 


Il8  NOTES 

16451.   Lancelot:  the  knight  whom  Arthur  loved.     In  the  barons' 

war, 

the  two, 

For  each  had  warded  either  in  the  fight, 
Sware  on  the  field  of  death  a  deathless  love. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  129-131. 

Lancelot  and  Arthur's  Queen,  Guinevere,  fall  in  love,  and  he  breaks 
his  vows. 

16  465.   Sir  Fair-hands.     Beaumains  is  the  name  put  in  the  mouth 
of  Sir  Kay  by  Malory.     It  means  fair  hands.     See  note,  1  2. 

17476.  Broach:  spit,  to  which  a  piece  of  meat  was  fastened  for 
roasting  before  an  open  fire. 

17489.  Tarns:  mountain  lakes. 

17490.  Caer-Eryri:   Snowdon  Field.     Caer  is  a  Welsh  prefix  mean- 
ing wall,  fort,  or  castle;  Eryri  is  the  Welsh  name  of  Snowdon,  the 
highest  mountain  peak  in  Wales  or  in  England. 

17  492.   Isle  Avilion  (a-vil'ion,  or,  for  the  sake  of  the  rhythm  here, 
a-vil'i-on") :  literally,  the  "  Isle  of  Apples."    "  In  Celtic  mythology,  the 
Land  of  the  Blessed,  or  Isle  of  Souls,  an  earthly  paradise  in  the  west- 
ern seas." —  Century  Cyclopedia  of  Names.    See  The  Passing  of  Arthur, 
11.  427-432- 

18  519.  Between  the  in-crescent  and  de-crescent  moon :  at  the  time 
of  the  full  moon. 

18  524.   Ragged  oval:  the  boundary  of  their  play  lists. 

18  528.  From  Satan's  foot  to  Peter's  knee.  St.  Peter  kept  the  keys 
of  the  gate  of  Heaven.  The  meaning,  then,  is  from  Sir  Kay's  tyranny 
(Hell)  to  King  Arthur's  favor  (Heaven). 

18  529.   News :  now  used  as  a  singular  noun  though  plural  in  form. 

20  571.   Lions:  the  heraldic  device  on  Lancelot's  shield. 

And  when  the  shield  was  brought,  and  Gawain  saw 
Sir  Lancelot's  azure  lions,  crown'd  with  gold, 

Ramp  in  the  field. 

Lancelot  and  Elaine,  11.  658-660. 

20  573.  Hall.  The  mighty  hall  of  Arthur  is  described  in  The  Holy 
Grail,  225  ff. 

20  575.   May-blossom :  the  white  hawthorn  which  blossoms  in  May. 

The  lanes,  you  know,  were  white  with  may. 

The  Miller's  Daughter. 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE  119 

20  586.   Best  blood :    the   wine   used   at   the   sacrament,   typical   of 
Christ's  blood. 

21  607.   Or  a  holy  life :  or  become  a  nun. 

22  642.   May :  hawthorn  blossom  or  color  of  the  hawthorn  blossom. 

22  646.   Lane  of  access :  passage  to  the  King  between  the  rows  of 
knights. 

23  665.   Maiden  shield :  the  shield  of  an  unproved  knight. 
23  665.   Casque :  helmet. 

23  678.  Trenchant :  sharpened. 

24  688.   Being  named :  called  by  name. 

24  693.   Hath  past  his  time :  has  reached  his  dotage. 

25  729.  Foul-flesh'd  agaric  in  the  holt:   decayed    or   ill-smelling 
fungus  in  the  wood.     The  mushroom  belongs  to  the  agaricoid  fungi. 

25  729.  Holt :  a  grove. 

25  742.  Shingle :  water-worn  stones,  coarser  than  gravel. 

26  749.  Unhappiness :  mischance. 
26751.  Loon:  stupid  fellow. 

26  766.  Beknaved :  called  knave. 

27  773.  Evensong :  vespers. 
27  778.  Mere :  a  stagnant  pool. 
27  799.  Caitiff :  wicked. 

27  804.  Wan :  gloomy. 

28  828.   Cate :  a  dainty  article  of  food. 

28  829.   Peacock.     When  the  peacock  was  served  at  table,  in  the  days 
of  knight-errantry,  "All  the  guests,  male  and  female,  took  a  solemn 
vow;  the  knights  vowing  bravery,  and  the  ladies  engaging  to  be  loving 
and  faithful."     [Quoted  by  Rolfe.]     Lynette  is  thus  reminded  of  her 
duty  as  a  Jady. 

29  839.   Frontless :  shameless. 

29  862.   Avail :  advantage.  . 

30  870.   Allow  :  accept. 

30871.   Stoat:  ermine.     The  lion  and  the  ermine  have  been  com- 
panions on  the  same  small  island. 
30  873.   Ruth :  pity. 
30881.   Hers:  Cinderella's. 

30  889.   Lent-lily  in  hue :  yellow,  the  color  of  the  daffodil  or  Lent 
lily,  which  is  so  called  because  it  blossoms  about  the  lenten  season. 

31  908.   Avanturine :  a  variety  of  feldspar,  spangled  with  scales  of 


120  NOTES 

31  922.   Liefer  had  I :  I  had  rather. 

32  934.   Lightly :  quickly. 

32  948.   Grovelling :  flat  on  the  ground,  face  downward. 

33  971.   Morning  star.     Lynette  is  changing.     Love  for  Gareth  is 
entering  her  heart,  though  she  is  too  proud  to  withdraw  the  epithets 
with  which  she  has  "  beknaved  "  him. 

33  979.   Fool's  parable :  foolish  parable  of  the  day,  —  the  "  Morning- 
Star,  and  Noon-Sun,  and  Evening-Star." 

34  996.   Worship  :  respect. 
34  1002.   Shallow  :  stream. 

34  1002.   Flower  :  the  dandelion. 

34  1008.  Brother.  Gareth,  having  the  shield  of  Morning-Star,  is 
mistaken  by  Noon-Sun  for  his  brother. 

34  1008.    Marches :  the  borderlands  or  boundaries  of  his  district. 

35  1012.    Vizoring :  covering  with  the  vizor  of  his  helmet. 
35  1013.   Cipher :  round  and  meaningless. 

35  1026.   Myself  when  I  return  will  plead  for  thee.    Gareth  is  a 
true  knight.    His  antagonist  fell  because  of  an  accident  to  his  horse. 
Knightly  courtesy  demanded  that  he  be  dealt  with  as  an  unfortunate. 
Gareth  not  only  rescued  him  from  the  stream  but  promised  to  plead 
for  him  at  Arthur's  court. 

36  1048.   The  boar  hath  rosemaries  and  bay.    The  boar's  head, 
when  served  before  the  king,  is  garnished  not  with  flowers  but  with 
rosemaries  (evergreens)  and  bay  (laurel). 

36  1052.  Mavis  :  song  thrush. 

36  1052.  Merle  :  European  blackbird. 

36  1060.  Treble  bow  :  three  spans. 

36  1067.  Wrapt  in  harden'd  skins.     In  the  allegory  these  hardened 
skins  may  be  taken  to  mean  the  evil  habits  of  a  lifetime. 

37  1075.  Disaster.     Etymologically  this  word  means  ill  star  or  evil 
star. 

38  1099.    Foredooming  :  foreboding  or  apprehending  or  fearing. 
381118.   Buoy:  the  object  of  "can  bring  under,"  the  understood 

predicate  of  "  Southwesterns." 
391130.   Trefoil:  clover. 

39  1146.  Sooth  :  truth. 

401163.  Comb:  a  "bowl-shaped  hollow  or  valley  inclosed  on  all 
sides  but  one  by  steep  and  in  some  cases  perpendicular  cliffs."  — 
Century  Dictionary. 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  121 

401172.  Vexillary:  a  Roman  standard  bearer.  The  reference  is 
to  certain  Latin  inscriptions  made  by  a  Roman  standard  bearer  on  the 
cliffs  above  the  river  Gelt  in  Cumberland. 

40  1174.   Phosphorus  :  the  Greek  for  morning  star. 

40  1174.   Meridies  :  the  Latin  for  midday. 

40  1174.   Hesperus  :  the  Greek  for  evening  star. 

40  1175.   Nox  :  the  Latin  for  night. 

401175.   Mors:  the  Latin  for  death. 

43  1273.   Ramp  :  rear  or  spring  up. 

44  1281.   Arthur's   Harp.     Gareth   was   studying  the   stars.     Some 
believe  that  the  constellation  called  Arthur's  Harp  was  the  one  known 
as  Lyra,  consisting  of  three  stars,  Vega,  Arcturus,  and  Polaris,  arranged 
in  the  shape  of  a  triangle.     Dr.  Rolfe,  quoting  the  lines  from  The  Last 
Tournament, 

Dost  thou  know  the  star 
We  call  the  harp  of  Arthur  up  in  heaven  ? 

infers  that  the  Harp  was  a  single  star  and  not  a  constellation.  The 
star  Arcturus,  constellation  Bootes,  is  known  as  Arthur's  Hufe 
(haunt).  Dr.  Vlymen  says  that  the  Great  Bear  is  here  referred  to. 

46  1348.   Fleshless  laughter  :  the  grinning  skull  of  Death. 

47  1367.   Blink :  shut  their  eyes  to. 

47  1386.  Then  sprang  the  happier  day  from  underground.  In  the 
allegory,  spring  has  come,  and  the  plant  life  rises  again  from  its  season 
of  "  death." 

47  1392.   He  :  Malory,  the  author  of  Morte  Darthur. 

47  1394.   He  :  Tennyson. 


LANCELOT   AND   ELAINE 

49  2.   Astolat :  the  Arthurian  name  for  Guilford  in  Surrey. 
49  4.   Sacred  :  to  Elaine. 
49  8.   Braided  :  embroidered. 
49  10.   Tinct :  tint. 
49  10.   Wit :  skill  or  fancy. 
49  22.   Caerlyle :  Carlisle  in  Cumberland. 

49  23.   Caerleon:  in  Monmouthshire,  where  King  Arthur,  according 
to  tradition,  held  his  court. 

49  23.   Camelot :  described  in  Gareth  and  Lynette,  11.  296  ff. 


122  NOTES 

50  35.  Lyonnesse  :  the  mythical  land  from  which  Arthur  came  and 
the  birthplace  of  Sir  Tristram. 

A  land  of  old  upheaven  from  the  abyss 
By  fire,  to  sink  into  the  abyss  again. 

The  Passing  of  Arthur,  11.  82-83. 

Now,  "  it  is  said  to  be  more  than  forty  fathoms  under  water  between 
the  Land's  End  and  the  isles  of  Scilly,  the  sea  having  gradually 
encroached  upon  the  land." —  Century  Cyclopedia  of  Names. 

50  36.   Tarn :  a  small  lake  which  has  no  visible  feeders  or  outlets. 

50  50.   Nape  :  the  back,  upper  part  of  the  neck. 

50  53.   Shingly  scaur  (skar) :  a  steep  cliff  covered  with  loose  water- 
worn  stones. 

51  59.   Divinely  :  by  the  guidance  of  God,  or  providentially. 
51  67.   Still :  every  year. 

51  69.  Queen  :  Guinevere,  between  whom  and  Lancelot  there  existed 
unknightly  relations. 

51  "5.   Place  :  London. 

52  91.   Tale  :  number. 

52  94.   Lets  :  hinders  or  keeps. 
52  110.   Allow'd:  permitted. 
52  in.   Of:  by. 

52  us.  Devoir:  duty. 

53  125.   Untruth :  unfaithfulness. 

53  132.  He  is  all  fault  who  hath  no  fault  at  all.  Is  this  the  com- 
mon verdict  ?  Nearly  the  same  idea  is  expressed  in  the  following  lines 
from  Tennyson's  Maud,  I.  ii.  11.  6-7  : 

Faultily  faultless,  icily  regular,  splendidly  null, 
Dead  perfection,  no  more. 

57  269.   Glanced  at :  spoke  of. 

57  270.   Suddenly  speaking  of  the  wordless  man.    Not  caring  to 
talk  of  the  Queen  and  himself,  Lancelot  changes  the  subject  by  asking 
a  question   about   the   dumb  porter  who   met   him   at   the   gates   of 
Astolat. 

58  279.   Badon  hill :  Mons  Badonicus,  or  Badbury  Rings  in  Dorset- 
shire.    When,  in  520,  the  Saxons  (called  in    The  Idylls  the  "White 
Horse ")   were  invading   England,   "  the    Britons  rallied  under  a  new 
leader,  Arthur,  and  threw  back  the  invaders  as  they  pressed  westward 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  123 

through  the  Dorsetshire  wood-lands  in  a  great  overthrow  at  Badbury 
or  Mount  Badon."  —  Green,  History  of  the  English  People,  I,  24. 
58  280.   Rapt :  transported. 

58  288  ff.  "  The  first  battle  in  which  he  [Arthur]  was  engaged, 
was  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Gleni.  The  second,  third,  fourth,  and 
fifth,  were  on  the  river,  by  the  Britons  called  Duglas,  in  the  region 
Linius.  The  sixth,  on  the  river  Bassas.  The  seventh,  in  the  wood 
Celidon,  which  the  Britons  call  Cat  Coit  Celidon.  The  eighth  was 
near  Gurnion  castle,  where  Arthur  bore  the  image  of  the  Holy  Virgin, 
mother  of  God,  upon  his  shoulders,  and  through  the  power  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  holy  Mary,  put  the  Saxons  to  flight,  and  pursued 
them  the  whole  day  with  great  slaughter.  The  ninth  was  at  the  City 
of  Legion  [Exeter],  which  is  called  Cair  Lion.  The  tenth  was  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Trat  Treuroit.  The  eleventh  was  on  the  mountain 
Breguoin,  which  we  call  Cat  Bregion.  The  twelfth  was  a  most  severe 
contest,  when  Arthur  penetrated  to  the  hill  of  Badon.  In  this  engage- 
ment, nine  hundred  and  forty  fell  by  his  hand  alone,  no  one  but  the 
Lord  affording  him  assistance.  In  all  these  engagements  the  Britons 
were  successful.  For  no  strength  can  avail  against  the  will  of  the 
Almighty." 

Gleni  =  Glem,  in  Lincolnshire,  by  some. 

=  probably  Glen,  in  Northumberland. 
Duglas  =  the  little  river  Dunglas. 
Bassas  =  an  isolated  rock  called  "  The  Bass  "  in  the  Frith  of  Forth,  not  a 

river. 

Celidon  =  the  Caledonian  forest,  or  the  forest  of  Englewood. 
Gurnion  castle  =  probably  "  the  Roman  station  of  Garionenni,  near  Yar- 
mouth, in  Norfolk." 
Legion  =  Exeter. 

Trat  Treuroit  =  the  Brue,  in  Somersetshire ;  or  the  Ribble,  Lancashire. 
Cat  Bregion  =  Cadbury,  in  Somersetshire;  or  Edinburgh. 
Badon  =  Bath. 

—  Nennius,  History  of  the  Britons,  translated  by  J.  A.  Giles,  "  Six  Old 
English  Chronicles,"  Bonn's  Antiquarian  Library,  408,  409,  and  Note. 

58  297.   Wild  White  Horse.    The  White  Horse  was  the  emblem  of 
the  Saxon  invaders. 

Tamper'd  with  the  Lords  of  the  White  Horse, 

Heathen,  the  brood  by  Hengist  left. 

Guinevere,  11.  15-16. 

59  314.   The  fire  of  God.     King  Arthur  was  God's  champion. 


124  NOTES 

"  Sir  and  my  liege,"  he  [Lancelot]  cried,  "  the  fire  of  God 
Descends  upon  thee  in  the  battle-field." 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11. 127-128. 

59  338.   Rathe  :  early. 

60  357.   Braved :  set  at  defiance. 

62  422.  Pendragon  :  At  the  moment  when  King  Aurelius  died,  there 
appeared  to  Uther  "a  star  of  wonderful  magnitude  and  brightness, 
darting  forth  a  ray,  at  the  end  of  which  was  a  globe  of  fire  in  form  of  a 
dragon,  out  of  whose  mouth  issued  two  rays ;  one  of  which  seemed 
to  stretch  out  itself  beyond  the  extent  of  Gaul,  the  other  towards  the 
Irish  Sea,  and  ended  in  seven  lesser  rays."  Uther,  the  King's  brother, 
in  alarm  consulted  Merlin  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  portent.  He 
answered  "You  shall  be  king  of  Britain.  For  the  star,  and  the  fiery 
dragon  under  it,  signifies  yourself,  and  the  ray  extending  towards  the 
Gallic  coast,  portends  that  you  shall  have  a  most  potent  son,  to  whose 
power  all  those  kingdoms  shall  be  subject  over  which  the  ray  reaches." 
When  Uther  became  king,  "  remembering  the  explanation  which  Merlin 
had  made  of  the  star  above-mentioned,  [he]  commanded  two  dragons 
to  be  made  of  gold,  in  likeness  of  the  dragon  which  he  had  seen  at  the 
ray  of  the  star.  .  .  .  From  this  time,  therefore,  he  was  called  Uther 
Pendragon,  which  in  the  British  tongue  signifies  the  dragon's  head." 
—  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  British  History,  translated  by  J.  A.  Giles, 
"Six  Old  English  Chronicles,"  Bohn's  Antiquarian  Library,  219-221. 

62  423.  Mysteriously :  referring  to  the  mystery  of  King  Arthur's 
birth. 

62  431.    Samite :  a  heavy  silk  material. 

63  446.   Crescent :  in    the   first   quarter ;   that   is,  in   the  period  of 
promise. 

66  548.  Restless  heart.  The  changing  lights  reflected  from  the 
diamond  gave  it  the  restless  appearance. 

66  552.  In  the  mid  might  and  flourish  of  his  May :  at  the  height 
of  his  power. 

66554.   Geraint. 

The  brave  Geraint,  a  knight  of  Arthur's  court, 

A  tributary  prince  of  Devon,  one 

Of  that  great  Order  of  the  Table  Round. 

The  Marriage  of  Geraint,  II.  1-3. 

67567.   Tarriance:  delay  or  lingering. 
68  592.   So  fine  a  fear :  note  the  sarcasm. 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE  12$ 

69  653.   Hern :  heron. 

69  653.    Slipt :   loosened.     In  the   practice  of  falconry  the  hunter 
"  loosened  "  the  falcon  that  he  might  pursue  and  catch  the  heron. 
71715.   Strokes  of  blood :  pulse  beats. 

72  "17.  Shook  his  hair.  Sir  Gawain,  the  courteous  nephew  of  the 
King,  was  given  similar  characteristics  in  The  Coming  of  Arthur, 
11.  319-321. 

And  Gawain  went,  and  breaking  into  song 
Sprang  out,  and  follow'd  by  his  flying  hair 
Ran  like  a  colt. 

74  798.   His  own  far  blood :  his  relatives,  distantly  removed. 

76  871.   Honor,  etc.     Note  the  antithesis. 

77  883.   Rough  sickness :  delirium.     See  11.  849,  850. 

77  905.  Victim's  flowers  before  he  fall.  She  is  comparing  herself  to 
the  animal  intended  for  sacrifice.  The  ancients  decorated  such  animals 
with  garlands. 

79  953.  Half  my  realm  beyond  the  seas.  "  But  to  say  the  sooth,  Sir 
Lancelot  and  his  nephews  were  lords  of  all  France,  and  of  all  the  lands 
that  longed  unto  France." — Malory,  Morte  Darlhur,  XX,  18. 

81  1015.  Hark  the  Phantom  of  the  house :  the  "  banshee  "  of  the 
house  of  Astolat.  In  Ireland  and  in  some  parts  of  Scotland  "  the  ban- 
shee is  a  species  of  aristocratic  fairy,  who,  in  the  shape  of  a  little  hideous 
old  woman,  has  been  known  to  appear,  and  heard  to  sing  in  a  mourn- 
ful supernatural  voice  under  the  windows  of  great  houses,  to  warn  the 
family  that  some  were  soon  to  die."  —  Century  Dictionary. 

84  1092.  Ghostly  man :  priest. 

86  1170.  Oriel:  a  room  that  projects  out  from  the  wall  of  a  house. 
It  was  formerly  used  as  a  boudoir. 

86  1170.   Summer  side :  southern  side. 

86ii78.  Tawnier  than  her  cygnet's.  The  down  of  the  young  swan 
is  dark  or  tan  colored.  Lancelot  says  that  the  swan's  neck,  compared 
with  the  Queen's,  seems  darker  than  her  cygnet's. 

89  1265.   Sometime :  formerly. 

91  1311.  Estate :  as  a  transitive  verb  this  word  is  rare  in  modern 
usage.  —  Murray's  Dictionary. 

91  1316.   Worship :  honor. 

91  1318.   Worshipfully :  honorably. 

91  1319.  That  shrine  which  then  in  all  the  realm  was  richest: 
Westminstei  Abbey. 


126  NOTES 

92  1346.  Affiance :  trust. 

92  1354.  Homeless :  loneliness  caused  by  the  lack  of  home  ties. 

94  1399.    King's  son.    Lancelot  was  the  son  of  Ban,  king  of  Brittany. 

94  1418.  He  should  die  a  holy  man.  When  Arthur  discovered  the 
guilt  of  Lancelot  and  the  Queen,  he  decreed  that  Guinevere  should  be 
burned  at  the  stake.  Lancelot  rescued  her  and  took  her  to  his  castle, 
"  Joyous  Card."  There  he  was  besieged  by  Arthur  and  Gawain.  The 
Pope,  interfering,  brought  about  a  peace  and  the  return  of  Guinevere 
to  Arthur's  court.  Lancelot  returned  to  his  estate  beyond  the  seas. 
Arthur  followed  and  made  war  against  him,  besieging  him  in  his  home 
castle.  The  King  was  called  home  by  the  rebellion  of  Modred,  who 
desired  to  overthrow  Arthur  and  become  king.  After  Arthur's  death, 
according  to  Malory,  Guinevere  retired  to  the  nunnery  at  Almesbury 
(Amesbury).  Lancelot  sought  her  and  found  her  there,  but  she,  refusing 
to  go  with  him,  made  him  promise  never  again  to  see  her  face.  Having 
promised,  he  departed  and  "  rode  all  that  day  and  all  that  night  in  a 
forest,  weeping."  At  last  he  came  to  a  hermitage  and  a  chapel,  where 
dwelt  the  Bishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  knight,  Sir  Bedivere.  Lance- 
lot's request  to  be  received  as  a  brother  of  the  order  was  granted ;  so 
he  put  on  the  habit  and  served  God  with  prayers  and  fastings.  Later 
he  learned  of  the  Queen's  death.  After  that,  refusing  food,  he  soon 
died.  His  body  was,  by  his  request,  taken  to  castle  Joyous  Card  and 
laid  to  rest  in  the  body  of  the  quire.  —  Morte  Darthur,  XX  and  XXI. 


THE    PASSING    OF   ARTHUR 

95  i   Sir  Bedivere : 

the  first  of  all  his  knights 
Knighted  by  Arthur  at  his  crowning. 

96  28.   I  pass  but  shall  not  die.    Merlin  had  prophesied  that  Arthur 
should  not  die. 

Merlin  in  our  time 

Hath  spoken  also,  not  in  jest,  and  sworn 
Tho'  man  may  wound  him  [the  King]  that  he  will  not  die, 
But  pass,  again  to  come ;  and  then  or  now 
Utterly  smite  the  heathen  underfoot, 
Till  these  and  all  men  hail  him  for  their  king. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  418-423. 


THE   PASSING   OF   ARTHUR  127 

96  30-31.  Gawain  kill'd  in  Lancelot's  war.  According  to  Malory, 
while  Arthur  was  making  war  against  Lancelot,  Gawain  received  a 
wound  at  Lancelot's  hand  which  healed.  Then  came  news  that  Modred, 
having  raised  a  rebellion,  had  proclaimed  himself  king.  Thereupon 
Arthur  and  Gawain  returned  to  England,  met  Modred  at  Dover,  and 
overcame  him  in  battle.  After  the  battle,  Gawain  was  found  uncon- 
scious in  a  boat.  He  had  been  injured  in  the  old  wound  made  by 
Lancelot.  When  Arthur  found  him,  he  regained  consciousness  long 
enough  to  write  a  letter  to  Lancelot  urging  him  to  come  to  Arthur's 
aid.  "And  so  at  the  hour  of  noon,  Sir  Gawain  yielded  up  the  spirit. 
And  then  the  king  let  inter  him  in  a  chapel  within  Dover  castle; 
and  there  yet  all  men  may  see  the  skull  of  him,  and  the  same  wound  is 
seen  that  Sir  Lancelot  gave  him  in  battle."  —  Malory,  Morte  Darthur, 
XXI,  2. 

96  35.   Isle  of  rest :  "  the  island-valley  of  Avilion,"  1.  427. 

97  77.   Almesbury.    The  Queen  (according  to  Tennyson)  fled  to  the 
nunnery  at   Almesbury.     Hither  the    King  followed  her.     When  she 
heard  his  step  ring  along  the  gallery  leading  to  her  cell,  she  fell  from 

off  her  seat 

And  grovell'd  with  her  face  against  the  floor. 

The  King  forgave  her  and  blest  her.     After  he  went  away  the  nuns 

took  her  to  themselves ;  and  she 
Still  hoping,  fearing,  "  is  it  yet  too  late  ?  " 
Dwelt  with  them,  till  in  time  their  Abbess  died. 
Then  she,  for  her  good  deeds  and  her  pure  life, 
And  for  the  power  of  ministration  in  her, 
And  likewise  for  the  high  rank  she  had  borne, 
Was  chosen  Abbess,  there,  an  Abbess,  lived 
For  three  brief  years,  and  there,  an  Abbess,  past 
To  where  beyond  these  voices  there  is  peace. 

Guinevere,  11.  684-692. 

99  135.  The  voice,  etc.  "  The  ocean  has  frequently  been  used  in 
literature  as  a  symbol  of  Time  and  Eternity."  —  Rowe. 

99  139-142.  Voice  that  shakes  the  world,  and  wastes  the  narrow 
realm  .  .  .  and  beats,  etc. :  the  sound  of  the  ocean  beating  on  the 
shore  and  wearing  it  away. 

100  160.  Purport :  purpose. 

100 177.  Chancel :  "  the  eastern  and  most  sacred  portion  of  a 
church."  —  Rowe. 


128  NOTES 

100  iso.  Water:  lake. 

101  182.  Unsolders  :  dissolves. 

101  211.   Hest :  command. 

102  215.   Mighty  bones  :  "  The  bones  of  the  Danish  invaders  heaped 
tip  in  part  of  the  church  building  at  Hythe  are  abnormally  large-sized, 
and  seem  to  show  that  '  there  were  giants  in  those  days.'  "  —  Rowe. 

103  243.   Fealty :  fidelity  to  a  lord. 
103  248.   Lief :  beloved. 

103  272.  Maiden  of  the  Lake.  Queen  Bellicent  was  at  the  crowning 
of  Arthur,  and  thus  describes  the  Lady  of  the  Lake : 

And  near  him  stood  the  Lady  of  the  Lake, 
Who  knows  a  subtler  magic  than  his  own  — 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonderful. 
She  gave  the  King  his  huge  cross-hiked  sword, 
Whereby  to  drive  the  heathen  out :  a  mist 
Of  incense  curl'd  about  her,  and  her  face 
Wellnigh  was  hidden  in  the  minster  gloom ; 
But  there  wa's  heard  among  the  holy  hymns 
A  voice  as  of  the  waters,  for  she  dwells 
Down  in  a  deep ;  calm,  whatsoever  storms 
May  shake  the  world,  and  when  the  surface  rolls, 
Hath  power  to  walk  the  waters  like  our  Lord. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  282-294. 

105  307.   Northern  morn  :  the  Aurora  Borealis. 

105  308.  Moving  isles  of  winter :  blocks  of  ice  floating  in  the 
northern  sea;  icebergs. 

107  366.  Three  Queens.  "One  was  King  Arthur's  sister,  Queen 
Morgan  le  Fay ;  the  other  was  the  Queen  of  Northgales ;  the  third  was 
the  Queen  of  the  Waste  Lands."  —  Malory,  Morte  Darthur,  XXI,  6. 
They  were  the  same  as,  at  his  crowning,  the 

three  fair  queens, 

Who  stood  in  silence  near  his  throne,  the  friends 
Of  Arthur,  gazing  on  him,  tall,  with  bright 
Sweet  faces,  who  will  help  him  at  his  need. 

The  Coming  of  Arthur,  11.  275-278. 

107  383.  Greaves :  the  part  of  the  armor  that  protected  the  front 
of  the  leg  between  the  knee  and  the  foot. 
107  383.   Cuisses  :  armor  for  the  thighs. 


THE   PASSING  OF   ARTHUR  129 

108  401.  Holy  Elders :  the  three  wise  men,  who,  guided  by  the  star, 
came  to  the  child  Christ,  bringing  gold,  and  frankincense,  and  myrrh. 
See  Matthew  ii.  n. 

108  403.  Image  of  the  mighty  world.  "  Merlin  made  the  Round 
Table  in  tokening  of  the  roundness  of  the  world,  for  by  the  Round 
Table  is  the  world  signified  by  right."  —  Malory,  Morte  Darthur,  XIV,  2. 

108  408.    This  line  is  quoted  from  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  \.  508. 

109  435.  Fluting  a  wild  carol  ere  her  death.    "  The  musical  note  of 
swans  hath  been  commended,  and  that  they  sing  most  sweetly  before 
their  death."  —  Sir    Thomas  Browne,    Works,  II,  517,  London,   1836. 
This  belief,   that   formerly  was  quite  common,   has   long  since   been 
exploded. 

109  445.  From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes.  This  is 
a  verse  from  one  of  Merlin's  "riddling  triplets"  (The  Coming  of 
Arthur,  1.  410). 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  033  945 


